The First Rat in History to Receive a Gold Medal of Bravery
Not all heroes wear capes.
Rats. They get a bad reputation for being dirty. But have you heard about the rat that can save lives?
Just last year, one heroic rat redeemed his entire species by discovering landmines and saving countless lives in Cambodia.
This is the story of Magawa, the first rat in recorded history to ever receive a gold medal for his “life-saving bravery and devotion to duty.”
Not Your Average Rat
Meet Magawa.
He’s an African-giant pouched rat trained by Belgium-based charity, APOPO to sniff out deadly explosives.
Born in Tanzania in 2014, Magawa has had a highly successful career detecting landmines in Cambodia. In total, he has sniffed out 39 landmines and 28 unexploded munitions.
Every landmine he sniffs out potentially saves a life.
PDSA Director General Jan McLoughlin said in a statement:
Magawa’s work directly saves and changes the lives of men, women, and children who are impacted by these landmines. Every discovery he makes reduces the risk of injury or death for local people.”
People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA for short) is the British veterinary charity that presented Magawa the award — a small blue collar with a tiny gold medal that reads: “For animal gallantry or devotion of duty.”
In PDSA’s 77-year history, Magawa is the first rat to receive such an honor. He joins the ranks of police dogs, horses, pigeons, and a cat, all of whom have shown gallantry, usually in protecting their human companions.
For reference, the award is the animal equivalent of the Medal of Valor in the United States.
However, this prestigious award is more than about honoring Magawa and the exceptional work he has done. APOPO hopes this could also bring the problem of landmines to global attention.
The Landmine Problem
There are thought to be up to six million landmines in Cambodia.
They were laid between the years 1975–1998, during internal conflicts in the country — mainly in the northern region along the Thailand border.
Over the years, it’s taken 64,000 lives, and some 25,000 amputees.
Outside Cambodia, there are more than 60 million people in 58 countries that also live in fear of landmines and other deadly remnants.
The mines not only threaten people’s safety but also leave agricultural land unusable and unsafe to cultivate.
Unfortunately, President Donald Trump lifted restrictions on landmine use in January 2020. This ultimately reverses the ban brought in by President Barack Obama back in 2014.
Before that, the last influential person to raise awareness about the dangers of landmines was Princess Diana. In 1997, she launched a demining campaign in Angola by stepping through a live minefield.
Now, the country is free of landmines thanks to her.
Today, Magawa and the people of APOPO proudly follow in her footsteps.
Hero Rat in Training
I know you must be wondering, why a rat?
According to APOPO, they are intelligent, easy to train and have a highly developed sense of smell. At only 1.2 kg, Magawa — like most rats — are light enough to not trigger any landmines.
In fact, no rat has yet been harmed during operations.
That’s because they take about a year of training before they’re even allowed on the field. They also work consistently — around half an hour a day, in the early mornings.
In a nutshell, they’re highly trained to detect a chemical compound within the explosives. Once they detect the landmine, they scratch the top, which alerts their human handlers.
APOPO CEO and co-founder Christophe Cox said:
“APOPO’s Hero Rats significantly speed up landmine detection using their amazing sense of smell and an excellent memory. We use clicker training to teach rats like Magawa to scratch at the ground above a landmine.”
In turn, this enables them to search through areas with landmines faster than any human. Whereas humans with metal detectors can search an area the size of a tennis court in four days, Magawa can do it all in 30 minutes.
That’s why he’s the charity’s most successful Hero Rat, having cleared more than 141,000 square meters of land — the equivalent of 20 football pitches.
Even today, despite nearing retirement age (their lifespan is up to eight years), Magawa shows no signs of stopping.
Rats, like everything else, serve a purpose in our ecosystem. They’re known to be scavengers and opportunistic eaters that will eat whatever we throw away.
Today, they might even save our lives.
At the height of the pandemic, APOPO’s research team concluded that the super-sniffing Hero Rats might have the potential to possibly detect COVID-19.
With this mind, perhaps, they’re not all bad.
If you’re interested in the work APOPO does with Magawa and other rats, you can visit APOPO’s website here.
