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Special RATS | on assignment for the Telegraph Magazine

Every HeroRAT is weighed before they begin training in the field where they detect landmines at the APOPO Headquarters, Morogoro, Tanzania.

It was an unusual assignment – following some very special African Pouched Rats who are trained to sniff out both landmines and to diagnose tuberculosis. I traveled with the Telegraph’s Guy Kelly to Dar es Salaam to see and meet the TB rats and then onto the APOPO headquarters in Morogoro Tanzania. Morogoro is where the rats are trained and then flown worldwide to do their jobs sniffing out mines and disease. Read the feature in the Telegraph here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/tanzanias-hero-rats/?fbclid=IwAR1RnouD6cB56yK7ECBd5TYTNqB0Xm9CUUnq41NwD7gljey7xYyYbb-a_jM

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HeroRATs do landmine detection training at the APOPO Headquarters, Morogoro, Tanzania.

 

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A Hero Rat works in the lab using scent to diagnose tuberculosis. The rats diagnose TB by scratching over the top of the positive sputum samples at the APOPO – TB Detection Rats Laboratory, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
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HeroRATs and the APOPO trainers do landmine detection training at the APOPO Headquarters, Morogoro, Tanzania.
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A Hero Rat works in the lab using scent to diagnose tuberculosis. The rats diagnose TB by scratching over the top of the positive sputum samples. Once a positive sample has been detected the rat will be rewarded with food – a syringe filled with mashed fruit. At the APOPO – TB Detection Rats Laboratory, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
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Rats are loaded onto the APOPO truck before dawn. They will travel to the field to begin landmine sniffing training exercises at the APOPO Headquarters, Morogoro, Tanzania.
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HeroRATs and the APOPO trainers do landmine detection training at the APOPO Headquarters, Morogoro, Tanzania.
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A rat demonstrates detection work in a new machine currently being tested out named the ‘Falcon’. The device will use machine technology to detect and reward the rat’s diagnoses. This will eventually be used in place of a lab technician’s work. At the APOPO Headquarters, Morogoro, Tanzania.
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Every HeroRAT has sunscreen applied to their ears and tails before they begin training in the field where they detect landmines at the APOPO Headquarters, Morogoro, Tanzania.
A field of landmines at the APOPO Headquarters, Morogoro, Tanzania.
A field of landmines at the APOPO Headquarters, Morogoro, Tanzania.