Rats & Land Mines: Colombia Teaches Rodents To Sniff Out Explosives

The Los Angeles Times:

Early next year, anti-narcotics police will begin deploying squads of rats to sniff out land mines in remote areas of Colombia where leftist rebels and drug traffickers have planted hundreds of thousands of the deadly devices. It's an unconventional initiative in a country that is second only to Afghanistan in the number of land mine victims.

Read the whole story: The Los Angeles Times

Comments

[lessthansign3]

04:17 AM on 12/06/2010

The rat in the picture must be very good at her job - she's a fatty :D lol looks just like my white rattie girl, Gertrude (or Chubtrude, as she is occasionally called). Granted, white rats kinda all look the same... but still. Yay for rats!

[cliffhammond]

01:37 AM on 12/06/2010

I knew they find a use for Republicans one day.

[BadHaBritt]

12:58 AM on 12/06/2010

Why can't we do this at the airport. Just slip a rodent down a man's pants or a ladies blouse and presto. No more embarrassing touch-up, pat downs etc.

[FTracy3]

01:19 AM on 12/06/2010

is that a rat in your pants or are you just glad to be at the airport?

[david5000]

04:34 AM on 12/06/2010

Rats are excellent choice for land mines due to their light weight , but at the airport, I still prefer a dog.

[Steve Rockett]

12:09 AM on 12/06/2010

That's where I went wrong. I should have used rats instead of whales.

[Steve Rockett]

12:04 AM on 12/06/2010

Here in the States we have initiated a program to train republicans to smell out rats. The program has been an astounding success thus far and has even developed a motto: "It takes one to know one." The republicans are tied to pest control trucks and they drive around the rich neighborhoods seeking the vermin. We did have to extinguish their highly advanced ability to smell money, because in those neighborhoods they kept asking for donations. Your idea might create a whole new component of the TSA, our airport security. We could train republicans to sniff passengers, but once again we will have to keep them from stealing wallets. Good luck on your project and we hope you are able to prevent loss of human lives.

[AZAFVET]

05:38 PM on 12/05/2010

and the rat says "hmm, I think I smell a human"

[isis]

05:37 PM on 12/05/2010

We had pet rats and they were very trainable and cuddly. Later one of our children worked at a science museum as a rat trainer.

[Steve Rockett]

12:06 AM on 12/06/2010

I used to teach rats to be atats. There are thousands of my student ratatats. Thank you, thank you. I will be here all week. Please tip your waitress, Eileen Oveur. Don't forget to leave a dollar in the piano mans tip jar.

[YankeeCanuck]

03:40 PM on 12/05/2010

TSA agents can now be replaced with smarter, fully trained creatures. Rats will wear little TSA hats and vests and sniff you before your flight. No need for those expensive machines.

[AZAFVET]

05:37 PM on 12/05/2010

and they can get right up there into all the orifices and drag out the well hidden condoms of dope and c4, we used to use gerbils for that.

[YankeeCanuck]

07:02 PM on 12/05/2010

Rats are too smart for that--they prefer not to go to nasty places. They would just rat the person out by squeaking. ;-)

[lessthansign3]

04:14 AM on 12/06/2010

Yes, they do need hats and vests! Maybe even little rubber gloves so they don't get all dirty touching so many filthy humans all day. It'd be so cute I'd request a "random search" :D

[knightoftheroundtable]

02:19 PM on 12/05/2010

We have yet to scratch the surface of what other life on this planet is capable of. We like to think we are the most intelligent life on the planet. I think we have much to learn from other life on this little planet of ours.

[beyondliberal]

04:28 PM on 12/05/2010

Think of intelligence in terms of "different", rather than "less than".

[tttony]

10:51 PM on 12/05/2010

When a rat trains a human let me know.

[lessthansign3]

04:11 AM on 12/06/2010

Hehe, never met someone who has pet rats, huh? ;)

[logicanada]

01:43 PM on 12/05/2010

Save the rats, teach the manufacturers how to sniff out the mines.

[latinonationreport]

02:08 PM on 12/05/2010

absolutely! This reminds me of the Moroccan monkeys that detonated bombs/mines during the Iraq invastion in the early 2000's..

[SukiTheCat]

01:35 PM on 12/05/2010

wow that's amazing

[RPDash]

01:03 PM on 12/05/2010

I wonder if these rats can be trained to sniff out their cousins in the GOP Leadership. These old Teapublican rhinos are worst than a land mine.

[wildfirechef]

12:11 PM on 12/05/2010

Do not demean the rats with comparing them with the republicans

[lessthansign3]

04:11 AM on 12/06/2010

Thank you! So much anti-rat prejudice out there... Rats are cute and affectionate, whereas the same cannot be said of the vast majority of republicans.

[CR46]

11:07 AM on 12/05/2010

So republicans could be taught this skill?

[eyelashviper]

12:02 PM on 12/05/2010

Unfortunately, they appear to be untrainable.

[Douvie]

09:21 AM on 12/05/2010

Colombia teaches its rodents to sniff out bombs. We elect ours.