Rat Race ; Man has a New and Unlikely Ally in the Battle Against Buried Landmines Trained Sniffer Rats, Which Are Bringing Hope to Africa's War-Torn Nations.

Summary

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Landmines in the world's trouble spots have claimed more than half a million lives worldwide over the past 20 years, 80 per cent of them civilians. But the battle against the 60 million mines still lying buried could soon be at an end. And salvation may come from an unexpected quarter: rats.

These rodents are usually associated with disease, but they are easily domesticated, are cheap to train, immune to tropical illnesses, and, crucially, are too light to set off a landmine.

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Rat Race ; Man has a New and Unlikely Ally in the Battle Against Buried Landmines Trained Sniffer Rats, Which Are Bringing Hope to Africa's War-Torn Nations.

Minesweeping is currently done by the slow, laborious-process of using metal detectors, or, occasionally, by using trained sniffer dogs, though the cost of training the dogs means that it ...

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