- Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, detected over 100 landmines during his five-year career in Cambodia.
- Rats have a strong sense of smell and are light, so they can walk over mines without setting them off.
- Cambodia aims to be fully land-mine free by the year 2030.
Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, has been honored in Cambodia with a 7-foot statue for his work sniffing out over 100 undetonated land mines and bombs across Cambodia.
The statue of the rat was unveiled on April 3, per The Washington Post.
Giant pouched rats have an impeccable sense of smell, and Magawa was trained by APOPO — a Belgian organization that trains animals to sniff out land mines and diseases such as tuberculosis. He was sent to work in Cambodia in 2016 when he was 2 years old, per Smithsonian Magazine.
Magawa’s work in Cambodia
Magawa would identify chemicals in undetonated explosives and then alert his handlers to their location. Because Magawa weighed less than 3 pounds, he could walk over areas that were potentially dangerous for humans.
The rat also worked fast, searching an area the size of a tennis court in around 20 minutes. After identifying a mine, Magawa would be rewarded with a treat, typically a peanut or a banana slice.
Throughout his five-year career, he saved countless lives by sniffing out over 100 land mines, per The Washington Post. He cleared over 1.53 million square feet. Magawa died in 2022, but through the recently unveiled statue, his legacy lives on.
Magawa retired in 2021 and spent time mentoring younger rats.
“Magawa was one of the best rats we’ve ever had,” said Michael Raine, a program manager in Cambodia for Apopo, according to The Washington Post. “Magawa was calm and focused … he was gentle and friendly with his handlers. He just had the perfect temperament.”
Magawa was born at Apopo’s headquarters in Tanzania in 2013 and was trained as a “HeroRAT.”
“He was curious, very composed and quick at work,” Raine said. “He knew his job.”
Magawa was the first rat to receive the PDSA Gold Medal, earning the honor for his bravery and devotion to duty, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
The working rats receive one day off a week during which they get a “special feast” of peanuts, seasonal fruit and bananas. They also get playtime and exercise daily.
The work of detecting land mines in Cambodia
Cambodia has one of the highest concentrations of land mines in the world, with most of them from the Vietnamese occupation between 1979 and 1989 and the Khmer Rouge era in 1979, per The Washington Post.
Over the last 47 years, land mines have caused around 18,800 deaths and 45,000 injuries in Cambodia. Apopo began training mine-detection rats in 2015, helping to speed up efforts to locate mines. It is estimated that 6 million land mines remain in Cambodia.
Cambodia’s goal is to be completely land-mine free by 2030.
Magawa’s statue
The large statue of the rat was commissioned by Apopo and hand-carved from stone by local artists.
The statue was unveiled on the eve of the International Day for Mine Awareness. At the statue’s unveiling, government officials were in attendance as well as land-mine victims and children from a local school.
“What Magawa delivered was excellent, and it was a good way to remember him and also remind people in a nice way that there’s still a mine problem here in Cambodia,” Raine said, according to The Washington Post.