Heroic Rats in Africa

In my travels in Africa, I've come across several mine fields. One particularly bad patch was right next to an elementary school in southern Sudan. The local children would walk to school everyday through an overgrown grassy area. Everywhere you would see dark brown sticks sticking straight up. Each stick marked a landmine. A mine sweeping team had come through and marked them a few years ago.

I recently came across an interesting story in this month's National Geographic that peaked my interest. HeroRATS are working in Tanzania and Mozambique to clear mine fields of their dangers. It's true! A bunch of highly trained landmine sniffing rats on leashes are saving the lives of many Africans.

These stunt rats have actually met with great success. But not to worry. The rats are not in danger. The rodents are too light to set off the trigger on the mine. They merely sniff around till they smell TNT and then scratch the ground alerting their human counterparts to find the mines.

This genius idea is better than anything Hollywood could have created. Take a look at the official HeroRAT web site to read more about these brave little critters. 

I never in my life thought I would write this...but way to go rats! Keep up the good work.