After five years in the service, the Magawa rat is about to retire. During his career, male giant rats sniffed 71 landmines and 38 unexploded ordnance in Cambodia, the AP agency reported. Last year, the British veterinary charity awarded Magawa the first rat to be honored for courage and devotion.
“Although he is still in good health, he has reached retirement age and is slowing down significantly,” said the Belgian NGO Apopo, which trained Magawa. “The time has come,” she added. According to the organization, Magawa cleaned lands of 141,000 square meters in Cambodia from mines and unexploded ordnance.
Rats have a well-developed sense of smell and can detect chemical components in explosives. They ignore various metal fragments and search for mines faster than humans. When he encounters one, he alerts his human co-worker, who accompanies them. The training of rodents to search for landmines and unexploded ordnance usually takes a year and the animals receive a certificate after its completion. The charity Apopo trains rats not only to search for explosives, but also to detect tuberculosis.
Magawa was born in 2014 in Tanzania, has been working in Cambodia since 2016. In retirement, he will live in the same cage as before and will have the same daily program with one notable exception: he will no longer go to minefields. But he will receive the same food, play regularly and exercise for half an hour a day. He also has regular medical examinations. According to the AP agency, giant rats live up to eight years.
Cambodia is one of the world’s most mine-infected countries, according to Mag International, a demining organization in more than 20 countries. Landmines in Cambodia are a remnant of fighting between the Khmer Rouge, the government and other actors, especially in the 1970s and 1980s. Since 1979, explosives have killed or injured over 64,000 people there.
– .
