Man's Best Friend: African Giant Pouched Rats Clear Land Mines, Detect TB
Tuesday, November 25, 2008 - 17:07
in Paleontology & Archaeology
(PhysOrg.com) -- The African Giant Pouched Rats, Cricetomys gambianus have been trained to methodically sniff out land mines in war-torn regions of Africa. Apopo International based in Antwerp, Belgium is a non-profit organization that trains and puts into action the raccoon size bomb sniffers. The Giant Pouched Rat is not a member of the rat subfamily Murinae, but is in fact a uniquely African radiation of muroid rodents.