The sight of rats doesn't usually fill people with a sense of relief, but these 'rescue rats' could change that. Backpack-wearing African pouched rats are being trained to find people trapped under rubble
Large, fuzzy, backpack-wearing rodents may soon help first responders locate and communicate with survivors trapped in disaster sites.
The rodents are currently being trained to sniff out people trapped under rubble and can now do complex multiroom searches for victims, bringing the “hero rats” a step closer to being deployed at real disaster sites. Donna Kean is pioneering the search-and-rescue project at APOPO, a Belgian non-profit organisation that trains African pouched rats for humanitarian purposes. Its hero rats are already sniffing out thousands of landmines in South-East Asia and detecting cases of tuberculosis in Africa.App + Web