Magawa, the hero rat is retiring! Why is this so important? Because this little fella saved hundreds if not thousands of lives. Lets get a little more into this little guy’s background and see why he deserves the Medal of Honor.
What is Magawa?
Well Magawa who has been getting all the hype lately is a bomb-sniffing rat. He sniffs out landmines so they can be found and denotated early so that no unsuspecting passerby will get hurt. Magawa is no ordinary rat though, he is from the genus Cricetomys emin or aka African Pouch Rat. Native to African country of Gambia.
So what Makes Little Magawa Right for the Job?
Not every rat on the road can do this job. Generally speaking African Pouch Rats are friendly and tame little critters that can be easily trained are nimble on their feet. These Pouch Rats are used to walking on the soft sands of sub-saharan Africa and have sensitive noses that they use to search for food in the wastelands of Southern Africa.
Magawa fits his job description perfectly. Though not only the skills that make Magawa perfect for the job, its his training as well. Magawa was trained by Belgian organization called Apopo: a company that trains rats for sniffing diseases and landmines. In general, it takes nine months to a year to become a fully fledged mine sniffing rat. Even after the training they go through tests and different samples make sure they are right for the job.
So What has Magawa Accomplished and Where is He Now?
The versatile rodent has cleared as many as 225,000 square meters clear of landmines which is about 42 soccer pitches in his 5 year service.
After June 2021, Magawa has retired from his line of work and oversaw new recruits for a few weeks then afterwards lived out his live peacefully enjoying his peanuts and bananas.
As of January 2022, Magawa passed away peacefully at the age of 8yrs becoming HEROrat most successful rodent.
What is the APOPO HEROrat initiative?
APOPO (Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling) is NGO that specializes in the training of these southern pouched rats (which are refered to as HEROrats) in the detection of landmines and tubercolosis. But APOPO not only has HEROrats but also HEROdogs and HEROtrees that help in making the world a better place.
If you are looking for more information on the organization and how you can help, check their website: https://apopo.org/
The Daily Pumpernickel 