(Phnom Penh) A mine detector rat who was decorated for his bravery in Cambodia after helping to save lives has died, the NGO that trained him said on Tuesday.
Posted at 1:01 p.m.
Magawa, a giant African rat from Tanzania, helped clean up some 225,000 m2 of land, the equivalent of 42 football pitches, during his five-year career.
After detecting more than a hundred mines and other explosives, the large rodent retired last June.
Magawa died “peacefully” over the weekend at the age of eight, Belgian NGO APOPO said in a statement.
“All of us at APOPO feel the loss of Magawa and we are grateful for the incredible work he has done,” the group said.
APOPO reported that Magawa was in good health, and spent most of the weekend playing with his usual enthusiasm, but started showing signs of fatigue towards the end of the weekend, “Taking more naps and having less appetite”.
Active in Asia and Africa, the Belgian NGO had trained Magawa by rewarding him with his favorite dishes, bananas and peanuts.
For the detection of TNT contained by explosives, she had taught him to scratch on the ground in order to signal its presence to humans.
This technique, which is not based on the presence of scrap metal, allows you to work much faster than with a metal detector.
This allowed Magawa to comb through the equivalent of a tennis court in 30 minutes, a task that would take up to four days for a human equipped with a metal detector.
In September 2020, Magawa was awarded a gold medal by the British Animal Care Association PDSA (People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals), which annually rewards an animal for its bravery.
Magawa was the first rat to receive this award, considered the animal equivalent of the George Cross, the highest honor bestowed on civilians.
According to PDSA, between 4 and 6 million mines were laid in Cambodia from 1975 to 1998, killing more than 64,000.