Experts train rats to sniff out African landmines

IMPORTING of giant pouched rats was banned in the United States after the exotic animals were blamed for the spread of monkey pox — but back home in Africa the animals are being trained for humanitarian work...sniffing out land mines.

In their little red, black and blue harnesses, they look like miniature sniffer dogs. But their trainers at Tanzania's Sokoine University of Agriculture say the African pouched rats can do a much better job than dogs and all for a bit of banana.

"Rats are good, clever to learn, small, like performing repeated tasks and have a better sense of smell than dogs," said Christophe Cox, the Belgian co-ordinator of a project that is training 300 rats to locate mines by recognising the smell of dynamite and TNT.