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mothernaturenetwork:

Undetonated land mines are a serious form of pollution that leaves large geographical areas virtually uninhabitable and injures or kills thousands each year. That’s why locating and removing them from former war zones is so important. Trouble is that few human volunteers are willing to risk their lives to uncover them. Enter the rat brigade, specifically, African giant pouched rats.

These fast-learning rodents, dubbed HeroRATs — which are too light to set off land mines — are being trained to sniff out buried explosives. The group is also training rats to locate people buried under rubble from natural disasters, as well as detect leaking gas lines and even the presence of tuberculosis in human sputum samples.

8 animals helping humans save the planet

(via misantropo)