A Photo Puzzle

[hermes2015]

Here's a little animal-related puzzle. Why is this rat wearing a harness, and what is it looking for?



Why is it being fed a banana?




I will wait for some guesses before I reveal where I took these strange photos (sorry about the poor quality - I was using a D80 at the time, so focusing was a bit slow). Let me reassure everyone that the little fellows are treated like royalty and well looked after. Each one has a name and the harnesses they wear are not uncomfortable. They are very tame and love being petted, as can be seen here.

[No one]

My guess is they are looking for land mines. As for the harnesses, so they don't run away?

[hermes2015]

I will wait for one or more guesses before giving the background.

[OldGit]

I also think they're looking for land mines.  I wonder if they're heavy enough to trigger one.

[xSilverPhinx]

I think that if it was looking for landmines then its handler wouldn't be standing so close. The pictures don't reveal where the handler is, but I'm going to asume they are close by because the leash is tight, as if ready to pull the animal once it finds something.

I would definitely say the rat has been trained to provide some sort of service, though. They have an excellent sense of smell. It's being rewarded with a tasty banana because it found something.

Maybe some sort of foodstuff? Underground water?

[Arturo]

It's a pet.

[Dave]

I thought possibly truffles, but will ride with the landmine possibility as well.

Or are they looking for buried bodies?

[hermes2015]

Some of you are correct. This facility is a Belgian initiative situated in a small town called Morogoro, about 4 hours drive from Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania. The rats are trained to sniff out land mines. When they detect one they behave like pointer dogs and merely show the disposal team where the mine is situated; they don't actually detonate the mine. During training a known amount of explosive is put into a perforated metal egg (usually used for tea leaves to make a cup of tea). The eggs are usually buried, but one is visible here:



To determine how sensitive the rats are, samples of the soil above the egg are analyzed in a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer instrument (GC-MS) to determine the concentration of explosive in the soil:



That is why I visited the lab. The equipment was bought from our company in Johannesburg and it was my job to teach the operator how to use the hardware shown here and the software that controls it.

Here is a link to the web site of the facility:


https://www.apopo.org/en/mine-action/projects/tanzania

[joeactor]

Fascinating indeed...

The site doesn't say, but I assume the goal is not to have the rat detonate the mine, but just find it.

I wonder what the numbers show about success rates.

[hermes2015]

Fascinating indeed...

The site doesn't say, but I assume the goal is not to have the rat detonate the mine, but just find it.

I wonder what the numbers show about success rates.

Yes, as I said above, they just point out the mines and don't detonate them. I was told that the project has been successful, but I do not have any statistics.

[Dave]

I did remember that rats were being used to detect diseases, TB, cancer, in samples.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/from-land-mines-to-cancer-animals-incredible-sense-of-smell-is-saving-lives-a6882146.html

[Recusant]

Some handsome working rodents in those photos. Thanks for posting them, hermes2015! 

[hermes2015]

Some handsome working rodents in those photos. Thanks for posting them, hermes2015! 

I never thought I would find rats attractive, but they were quite adorable and very cuddly and affectionate.

[Dragonia]

I did a little reading about these rats here: www.bbc.com/future/story/20130222-scratch-and-sniff-mine-detectors
This is an awesome, monumentous partnership between animals and humans and the implications and potential uses are very exciting. 2 little bits from the article:

According to The International Committee of the Red Cross, more than 800 people are killed and 1,200 maimed by landmines every single month - most of them children, women, and elderly.....
...Yet since Apopo's rats launched into action in 2006, they've successfully cleared more than 6 million square meters of Mozambique's countryside, uncovering 2,406 landmines, 992 bombs, and 13,025 small arms and ammunitions.

I wish these rats were in use in Iraq and Afghanistan, they may have saved some soldiers' lives.
Cool thread, Hermes!

[Dave]

I did a little reading about these rats here: www.bbc.com/future/story/20130222-scratch-and-sniff-mine-detectors
This is an awesome, monumentous partnership between animals and humans and the implications and potential uses are very exciting. 2 little bits from the article:

According to The International Committee of the Red Cross, more than 800 people are killed and 1,200 maimed by landmines every single month - most of them children, women, and elderly.....
...Yet since Apopo's rats launched into action in 2006, they've successfully cleared more than 6 million square meters of Mozambique's countryside, uncovering 2,406 landmines, 992 bombs, and 13,025 small arms and ammunitions.

I wish these rats were in use in Iraq and Afghanistan, they may have saved some soldiers' lives.
Cool thread, Hermes!

Good stuff, but from my experience in Bahrein and snecdoteal evidence eldrwhere the Arabs absolutely hate rats. They would probably not even tolerate them for this purpose. But, historically, and especially in "primitive" cultures, rats would have been a real problem, to be killed on sight. Arabs tend not to keep furry pets, except cheetas if they are rich enough, or hunting dogs maybe.