![]() So far, all nine rats have mastered stages one and two six have reliably learned the entire sequence. Our most proficient rats were already reliably performing the basic behavioral sequence (go to victim, pull ball, and return to base point) within seven sessions in the third stage. On average, the rats took 14 sessions to reliably return to base point within 3 seconds of the beep in stage one, and 10 sessions to pull the ball for 3 seconds in stage two. Q: What was your success rate?Ī: Training started in August and is ongoing. The goal is for the rat to go over to this mock victim, pull the ball, return to where they were released from when they hear the beep. When they were reliably doing that, we’d start introducing a target human. In the real world, it would provide a signal to rescuers. The ball is attached to a microswitch, which emits a beep. ![]() Then we trained the rats to pull a rubber ball on their backpack. We trained the rat to come back to the starting point when we played a beep they were fed a reward of powdered rat pellets mixed with avocado and banana through a syringe when they did so. A trainer released the rat in an empty room and let it wander around. Q: How do you train a rat?Ī: The first thing we did was train them to return to their starting point. APOPO’s mission is focused on humanitarian projects, so this is a great way to build local capacity. We have all the training facilities in place, and we have amazing trainers who are local. The giant pouched rats are endemic here in Tanzania, where we’ve had a land mine detection program with them for 20 years. The life span of our rats in captivity is roughly 8 years but we have rats that have lived up to 10 to 11 years in retirement.ĭonna Kean has spent the past 5 months training rats for search and rescue at APOPO’s research site in Tanzania. And their size is useful because they will be able to penetrate into areas with dense rubble and debris that dogs just wouldn’t be able to. They also aren’t tied to just one trainer, which is what you find with dogs. Q: Why send rats into the rubble instead of dogs?Ī: The rats have a comparable sense of smell, and they’re just as trainable as dogs. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. Science caught up with Kean to chat about the new project, known as RescueRats. Now, they’re moving on to search and rescue. Donna Kean and her colleagues at APOPO, a nonprofit that trains pouched rats to save lives, have spent the past 2 decades working with the curious animals ( Cricetomys ansorgei) to sniff out tuberculosis and track down land mines. But a Belgian nonprofit based in Tanzania wants you to imagine something else: the African giant pouched rat. Think search and rescue animal, and you’re likely to picture a dog in an orange vest.
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