If you are an animation movie lover, then chances are that rats remind you of Ratatouille. A rat with amazing cooking skills and an unmistakable smell sense. The following news may sound bizarre but it’s true. But, before you get to the main news, you need to know a little about APOPO. APOPO is an non-profit organization that trains rats to save lives. Before your imagination runs wild, let us tell you, these rats save life by finding location of landmines and tuberculosis prone areas. They have been active for over two decades now, but recently they were in news because of their ”Hero Rat’ Mawasa’s retirement.
Magawa has worked as a Hero Rat for 5 years now and has saved thousands of lives by unearthing close to a hundred landmines. Little Magawa is just seven years old and has worked most of his life. Magawa is an African breed known for its smell sense. This breed’s smell sense is far superior than any of machinery we have developed till date. That is why it is a common practice in countries like Cambodia to use these Hero rats for detecting landmines.
The rat in news, Magawa has been honored by PDSA, a charity based in the UK. This British organization honors animals that do good deeds every year. For the first time this institution had honored a mouse. According to Magawa’s trainer, “this rat performed well, successfully completing every task given to it. I am proud to work with him.”
