Some considerrats , not to be baffled withmice , as pests . Others hold them lifesavers . One African giant pouch rat in Cambodia is making communities safer by sniffing out grave explosive — and he just set a record for his species .
According toSmithsonian , the 5 - year - older rat named Ronin found 109 land mine to engagement in the lowly community of Sror Aem , Preah Vihear , Cambodia , and 15 more undischarged artillery from August 2021 to February 2025 . This feat gained Ronin a spot inGuinness World Recordsfor “ most landmines found by a stinkpot ” this yr ( that ’s him in action in the YouTube video above ) .
Ronin is part of APOPO , a Belgian not-for-profit that train African giant pouch rats to detect unactivated country mine leave over from wars in different state . The organizationexplainsthat many types of rats could become successful explosive detectors , but African hulk pouched rats have a particularly keen mother wit of odour , making them ideal for the job .
Their sophisticated olfactory system allow them to sniff low amounts of TNT bury almost eight inches deep and more than three feet aside . There are other reasons these bragging rodent make great detectors : they ’re lay - back , prosperous to train , and cheap to feed and breed .
Human state mine inspectors are more likely to be hurt or kill because their body weight unit can set off the pressure - activated explosives . APOPO ’s orotund rat consider only 3.3 quid , so they ’re light enough to locate a mine without detonating it — and they work faster than human would . They can seek an area for landmines the size of a tennis court in30 minutes . A human with a alloy detector can take up to four day to look for a terra firma mass of the same size . And fortunately , none of APOPO ’s rats have been hurt while on the problem .
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