The African giant pouched rats are being taught to detect elephant ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scales. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n <\/p>\n
Nobody loves a dirty rat, right? But what about an African giant pouched rat, a goliath-sized rodent weighing 1.5-2kg (3-4 times the size of our own brown rat) and native to the savannahs of southern Africa?<\/strong><\/p>\n Over the past 25 years, these giant rats \u2013 known as \u2018hero rats\u2019 by the people who train them \u2013 have been used to detect deadly land mines and tuberculosis pathogens in samples. <\/p>\n Now, there\u2019s even more reason to love them because they could play an important role in fighting the illegal wildlife trade, thanks to their amazing sense of smell.<\/p>\n Research carried out by scientists from the non-profit group APOPO<\/a> has demonstrated that giant rats can successfully detect samples of elephant ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales and African hardwood, even when these lucrative wildlife products were mixed with non-target items.<\/p>\n Of course, law enforcement officials already have high-tech scanners and detection dogs to help them in the fight against the multi-billion dollar illegal wildlife trade, so why the need for an army of rats?<\/p>\n Well, says senior research scientist Isabelle Szott and one of the co-authors of a paper<\/a> demonstrating the rats\u2019 efficacy, they could have several advantages over more traditional detection methods.<\/p>\n First of all, a detection rat costs about $8,000 to train compared with up to $30,000 for a dog. Airport scanners, meanwhile, can cost anywhere between $30,000 and $1.2 million.<\/p>\n