Not all superheroes wear capes, and HeroRATs perfectly depict this statement. African giant pouched rats are as large as cats, and they have an impeccable ability to sniff out illegal wildlife trafficking.
Tanzania-based non-profit APOPO has established that these ”HeroRATs” can act when needed the most. In the field of action, they have sniffed out landmines and tuberculosis. In fact, they are so adept at their job that they have found survivors among rubble in natural disaster zones. Now, the organization and its giant rodents are surprising us even further by ruining the party for the global illegal wildlife trade.
Illegal wildlife trafficking is the fourth-largest illicit business worldwide–following the likes of counterfeit products, drugs, and humans. According to Crawford Allan, vice president of nature crimes and policy advocacy at the WWF US, wildlife is a low-risk commodity. In his 30 years of experience working on wildlife crimes, he has seen traffickers disguise items in multiple ways. On the other hand, there is a weak spot in detection at ports and airports in Africa, which the organized crimes take full opportunity of.
What role do the HeroRATs play?
New research led by APOPO has been published in Frontiers in Conservation Science, which shows that trained rats can sniff out rhino horns, elephant tusks, African blackwood, and pangolin scales. These are some of the most common wildlife commodities shipped out of Africa.
Although dogs regularly sniff out wildlife contraband, these rats can complement them since they have small and agile bodies, perfectly suited for detecting contraband in densely packed shipping containers. Rats are also cheaper to train and are comfortable working with multiple handlers. They can be trained faster as well and are intelligent and curious.
How are the HeroRATs trained?
African giant pouched rats are trained for a year, with training sessions running from Monday to Friday and playtimes interspersed between them. The intelligent rats figure out the task quite quickly. In a trial by APOPO, the rats found 83% of the planted targets. The rats pull a little ball attached to a custom-made vest to alert the handler. This triggers a beeping sound.
As per Allan, the cost is the major hurdle in detecting illicit wildlife commodities, which the APOPO-trained rats can mitigate in the future.
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