Gambian Rat.

This is coolbert:

I see that the giant Gambian rat is being trained and used in de-mining operations all throughout Africa.

This is a novel approach and is only one facet of what has been and will be a protracted campaign to demine parts of the world ravaged by war. And ravaged by the indiscriminate and callous of land mines by some combatants.

This Gambian rat can be trained from the age of six weeks to detect through the use of smell, mines. And can enter a mined area without the danger of setting the mines off. Attached to tethers, these de-miners can do a job that is ordinarily very dangerous for humans in the extreme.

And do the job at least as well as a dog, perhaps better [dogs, in my estimation, would want to dig up the mine when found. An overpowering urge for a dog. But disastrous for the dog. BOOM!].

Most importantly, perhaps, is that the rats are willing to WORK FOR PEANUTS. LITERALLY SO!!!

The rats have obvious advantages.

Skilled rats can be easily replaced if they are killed or die from natural causes.

The cost to maintain a rat is very low.

They can have a reproducing population that proliferates prodigiously, and attachment to handlers is very low.

Loss of a rat in demining operations or through a natural death means little to the handlers. The rats do NOT bond as a dog would. NO sentimentality between handler and charge.

The biggest problem with demining is more than anything else, the indiscriminate and callous way that the mines were sown.

Perpetrators on a number of continents and in a number of conflicts just strew these deadly devices in a manner that were intended not so much to kill or maim, but as to intimidate.

And no marking or record keeping was EVER done. Even if the perpetrators DID wish to demine their handiwork, they could not, they did NOT keep any records. A very sad situation.

coolbert.