.jpg) |
| African Pouch Rat at the Apopo Center - Siem Reap, Cambodia |
The
Hero Rats of Cambodia
travel
memoir
by Gregory E. Larson
What does Lady Diana have
in common with a young Belgian named Bart Weetjens, and African Pouch
Rats? All have raised awareness of the death and destruction caused around the
world by landmines that remain from previous wars and conflicts.
.JPG) |
| The mountains of Cambodia |
On a recent overseas
trip, I spent five days in Cambodia with my youngest daughter and her family.
We toured the Angkor Wat temples and additional holy sites in the Cambodian
mountains, but one free day remained at the end of the trip. My daughter gave
Cici, the five-year-old granddaughter, some optional activities to pick from.
She said, “We can go to a lotus flower farm and see how they grow flowers, or
we can go to the market to shop and eat, or we can go to a center that gives
demonstrations on how rats are trained to detect land mines. It says we get to
hold a rat at the end of the visit.
Cici wasted no time in
saying, “I want to go see the rats!”
We hopped into a taxi and
were driven to the Apopo Center on the north side of Siem Reap, Cambodia. The
center is there to promote awareness of the landmine problem and to provide
demonstrations on the effectiveness of the rat program. They keep about a dozen
of the retired African Pouch Rats there for the demonstrations and allow those
on the tour to hold a rat.
At the beginning of the
tour, we were told the history of Bart Weetjens, the Belgian who raised rats as
pets. Bart teamed up with some professors in 1996 and developed a training
method for rats to detect small amounts (less than a millionth of an ounce) of
TNT. They also developed search methods and tested the effectiveness. The
African Pouch Rat was selected as the best type of rat to train, partly because
they have an average life span of eight years. It takes one year to train the
rats, so that allows them to be productive in searches for several years.
By 2003 the research team
completed field research methods in Mozambique that were 100% effective. The
Apopo main center was established in Tanzania, and over the years the search
teams have successfully worked around the world in places like Mozambique,
Angola, the Gaza Strip, and numerous sites in Southeast Asia, including
Cambodia.
Our guide shared with us that approximately six million landmines remain buried around Cambodia, most from the civil war with the Khmer Rouge. Every year there are people who are maimed, injured or killed when they step on a landmine or drive over an anti-tank landmine. During the demonstration, the guide explained that a trained rat can search an area the size of a tennis court in 30 minutes. That compares to the four days that are required for a person with a metal detector to search the same area.
 |
| The Hero Rat searches for the TNT sample |
One of the rats was
brought out on a leash, and the search demonstration began. Two “handlers” had
a cable looped on their ankles which allowed them to keep it tight, while the
rat, which was connected to the cable and the leash, was allowed to search from
one side of the plot to the other side. The men moved one step at a time for
each crossing of the plot by the rat. When the TNT was detected under the
surface, the rat began to dig (for the safe demonstration, a small amount of
TNT was in a little metal cannister). The guide explained that in a real
situation, the handlers move the rat away from the detected spot and a flag is
posted for experts to come and neutralize the landmine and safely remove it.
 |
| The Hero Rat discovers the TNT sample and begins to dig |
We were told the rats are
given physical examinations every two weeks. Since the rats are nocturnal, they
work mainly in the early morning hours and in early daylight. For us to hold a
rat, we were required to thoroughly wash our hands and arms to remove any
sunscreen to prevent the rats from getting sick.
The guide brought a chair
for Cici to sit down to hold a rat named Sylvia, but she wanted to be like the
adults and she kept standing with a big smile on her face when they placed Sylvia
in her arms.
 |
| Cici holds Sylvia, one of the Hero Rats |
The tour was very
educational, and it gave me a better awareness of the land mine problem that
continues to exist around the world. At the gift shop, I bought Cici a Hero Rat
t-shirt, which she proudly wears. Her mom asked her what she learned and she
said, “the rats go find things so they won’t explode.” Well said.
Each of the rats has a
name, and a majority of the best search rats are female. They made us aware that
one of the top female rats was named Lady Diana. I’m sure Lady Diana is smiling
somewhere up in heaven.
 |
| Cici proudly wears her Hero Rat t-shirt |
