(h) PDSA/AFP
Magawa helped clean up around 140,000 m2 of minefield
A statue of a minor national hero was unveiled this week in Cambodia. Standing just over two meters tall and hand-carved from stone, the statue marks the life of a very real mouse — and the lives he helped save.
He was proclaimed a hero and given a gold medal for save lives in Cambija, he retired in 2021 and 2022.
Can be done it was a giant African rat. During 6 years, it detected more than 100 landmines as “HeroRAT”, in the service of , a Belgian NGO that trains animals to help clear minefields left by the wars of the 1970s and 1980s.
In a sense, the wars in Cambodia never truly came to an end. According to , a charity based in the United Kingdom, since 1979, landmines buried during the Khmer Rouge and Vietnamese occupation killed more than 18 thousand people and injured more than 45 thousand.
Rats are trained and mobilized to locate landmines because they bring together exceptional and very specific qualities. They have a keen sense of smell, capable of detecting chemical compounds present in explosives, and are not distracted by simple pieces of metal scrap.
Furthermore, as they weigh little, they don’t detonate mines. Magawa only weighed about 1.4 kilos. Rats are also highly intelligent animals, note a.
“It can be done It was one of the best mice we had”, he recently said Michael Rainewho works for Apopo in Cambodia, at . “He was calm and focused. He was curious, very calm, and quick to work. I knew what I had to do.”
Over a five-year career, Magawa helped clear around 140,000 m2 of minefield, becoming one of the most successful “HeroRATS” from Apopo.
Deservedly, he has now earned the right to a statue, hand carved in stone and little more than two meters tallwhich highlights the life of a very real mouse — and the lives you helped save.
It could be something extraordinary and moving vrats sniffing and digging near a landmine that may have been buried 50 years agoalerting their trainers, who reward them with a small prize, such as a banana or peanuts. The mines are then safely destroyed.
When, at the advanced age of eight years for a mouse, Magawa had already helped younger mice developing detection capabilities. Rats can learn by watching other rats. He died peacefully the following year.
According to Apopo, they may still be buried more than six million of landmines on Cambodian soil, an endless nightmare. But Magawa helped Cambodians put a face to the partnership between rats and humans, an alliance that could continue to save lives.
