Tanzania trains giant backpack rescue rats

Category: Video, Animal world

14 October 2022

The non-profit organization APOPO, which is known for training rats to search for unexploded landmines and identify cases of tuberculosis by smell, trains giant gambian rats for search and rescue work.

Rats of this breed are very easy to train and are able to penetrate even those hidden cavities under the rubble that are inaccessible to dogs.

The trainers provided the rats with special rescue backpacks in advance, which, by default, contain a GPS transmitter, a walkie-talkie, a camera, and even a flashlight (however, due to the size of the rats, it will not be possible to transfer water to the victim, the container is too heavy for rodents).

All this allows not only to monitor how the rodent moves under the rubble, but also to immediately organize communication with the victim after the rat finds him.

The first results of training rats as rescuers are very encouraging. It is believed that next year they can be used in real cases.

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