Magawa, a rat that was trained to sniff out landmines, has died at the age of 8. This followed a five-year career where he sniffed out more than 100 landmines and explosives in Cambodia.
Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, was born in Tanzania, and was brought to Cambodia in 2015 to begin his career sniffing out landmines and explosives.
The animals are known for their excellent sense of smell which has made them useful in detecting landmines across the world. They are also capable of diagnosing tuberculosis. The rats are also cheaper to train than landmine-detecting dogs.
Cambodia still has a serious problem with landmines, following years of civil war, and is one of the world’s most heavily mined countries.
Image: Thukuk, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons