TIL that African rats are being trained to sniff out landmines...they're called HEROrats

That is pretty cool, when I think of rats I don't really think of them as a smart animal that holds advantages in domestication.

I was afraid that they were going to be used to detonate the mines...I can imagine sitting on a hillside, hearing sharp squeaks followed by explosions.

Very cool!

Now if you'll excuse me, mother, I'm being trained for something called...HERO...SQUAD.

This is a pretty cool project, military and police personnel in Colombia do the same thing.

Ratical. Rattastic. Ratsational.

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Sweet!! I'd love to support their work by sporting an awesome t-shirt or something, but...dear God, their t-shirt designs suck! I'd prefer the small logo they have in the bottom left corner of their page, where it says "HeroRATS is a brand of APOPO."

I'm going to suggest this to them. I love supporting causes like this (and that salad spinner blood centrifuge-Jesus Christ, what an idea!).

And they are so cute!

Cool rats!

Here's a good TED talk about this, by the founder:

http://www.ted.com/talks/bart_weetjens_how_i_taught_rats_to_sniff_out_land_mines.html

Yah, my sister and brother-in-law live in Tanzania. They caught a rat the size of a house cat in their backyard and donated it to the local university to be used in this program.

This just blew my mind.

We need a flash game of this.

HEREROrats

FTFY

that would be AnHerorats. Learn your memes

Any rat can be a minesweeper. Once.

More like AN HEROrats! Amiright?

HEROrat died for our sins.