Home » World » PHOTO⟩ Giant rat is awarded a medal for saving lives and finding mines – Animals – Nature and animals

PHOTO⟩ Giant rat is awarded a medal for saving lives and finding mines – Animals – Nature and animals

The people of Cambodia are at risk from thousands of unexploded ordnance. Explosive remnants of war kill or injure dozens of people every year.

With the help of other countries, Cambodia is slowly clearing the ground of unexploded ordnance, but the work is very time-consuming.

PHOTO: REUTERS / Scanpix

Therefore, rats are taken to the rescue, and one of them is the laureate Magava. The rat was trained by the Belgian NGO APOPO, headquartered in Tanzania.

APOPO trains rats to find landmines by smelling them.

The African giant rat is much larger than the ordinary rat, but is still light enough not to detonate when climbing a mine.

PHOTO: EPA / Scanpix

PHOTO: REUTERS / Scanpix

In seven years, Magava has discovered 39 mines and 28 explosives, helping to clear more than 141,000 square meters of land. Magava anti-personnel mines search so fast that you can survey an area the size of a tennis court in 30 minutes.

PHOTO: REUTERS / Scanpix

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