MOROGORO, Tanzania – Rats have long been misunderstood, often seen as pests rather than pals. However, the African giant pouched rat, the largest in the world, possesses special qualities that have caught the attention of a group of scientists in Tanzania. These experts believe rats can be crime-fighting allies against wildlife trafficking.
This innovative approach could reshape conservation efforts and shed new light on the surprising abilities of these extraordinary animals. Three qualities of these great little animals stand out for this job: their sense of smell, small size, and intelligence. Here’s how a team of scientists and trainers has been working with the first cohort of giant anti-smuggling rats to help find illegal wildlife products passing through ports and airports in East Africa.
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Banner image: Gigant rat. Image ©Franz Thiel.
Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.
Okay.
You may not like rats.
Oh.
But these ones are pretty impressive.
Not just because they are
the largest rat species on the planet,
but because they’re the first rats
trained to tell you.
Hey, there might be a rhino horn
hidden here.
These rats are being trained
by a group of scientists and trainers
in an NGO called APOPO.
to detect illegal wildlife products.
But wait a minute.
Why use rats for anti-trafficking?
It’s a mouse
We have a native mouse.
We focus on four items that are
trafficked in many countries in Africa.
Pangolin, ivory, rhino and
African blackwood.
they are three main reasons
that can describe
why to use rats with these activities.
So rats are pretty smart.
They have what scientists call
cognitive capabilities
and can learn to remember.
how pangolin
how ivory
how rhino horn smells.
They don’t need to forget that
they need to look for those items.
come back to us and indicate us
and inform us
Which leads us to another
cognitive ability
Rats are unable to speak human language.
We use their behavior to teach them
to indicate when they find something.
Just like dogs.
Rats can learn
how to do tricks for treats.
It’s called
We start training rats
when they are around ten weeks.
We start with socializing
These little vests
are key to establishing communication with the rats.
The trainers teach them to pull down the metal ball in their necks…
It means for us: I found something.
Then we introduce the samples
for indication
so that the rat gets to know
to associate the scent,
the indication, plus the rewarding.
We use two groups of samples.
One is what we call targets.
And the others that we call non-targets.
When the rats ignore the non targets
and identify the targets, they get rewarded.
And that is reinforced over and over and over.
Rats now know that they need
to be looking for these others
odors in the space.
So what makes the rats sense of smell
better than ours?
Our olfactory bulb is small compared
with the olfactory bulb of the rats.
Having a bigger bulb
allows the rats to be great at two things:
One: to detect tiny concentrations
of odors,
and two:
the ability to detect one specific scent
that could be masked
by other strong or similar smells.
They were born with this amazing
capability of detecting odors.
But we need to tune that capability
with training.
Currently we are doing
four types of training
That is leash,
Then we have trolley.
We have container
where you let the rat to go do a free search.
Then we have the car
where you place the rat
go sniff on the ventilation of a container.
All this daily training is performed
in the training site.
In order for them to get used to the port.
Wildlife trafficking
is a really tricky issue to tackle.
It’s a global trade involving
many countries and routes
around the globe
that constantly change
seaports play a significant role,
And that includes ports like Dar es Salaam,
The criminal gangs are getting
so creative
with the way that they’re moving
illegal wildlife products,
which,
you know, at times
makes it very difficult to, detect,
because it’s
smaller quantities
going in all types of vehicles.
Some huge and hard to enter
like big containers.
Which brings us
to the last quality of these rats.
Even if these rats are the largest ones
in the world,
they are still small and sneaky.
Their body morphology
allows them to go places
where humans can’t.
So it’s it’s an advantage
having an animal with this size
because they can move fast between they
the small spaces
This size also makes them really fast
and efficient.
You don’t need to use a lot of the space
to to move the rats.
How big a rat is may not seem
important at first glance,
but we must not forget that:
The illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be about
$23 billion annually.
We’re talking about,
organized groups
who have a lot of resources behind them.
Almost every country in the entire world
is somehow involved
in the illegal wildlife trade.
So it’s important
that flexible strategies
that include new tools
that are easy to maintain and transport.
And this is really why
we need
to be working together
with these ports and ports authorities,
We have the partnership
with, seaport authorities
and Tanzanian wildlife authorities.
So we train our rats in our headquarters,
and then we complemented the training,
taking the rats to be trained
on the site of deployment.
The team has been testing the rats in the seaport
for two years, 2023 and 2024, showing promising results.
We are now near
the 90% accuracy of these rats detecting
the wildlife products.
They aim to finish the tests and training by 2025.
Where the rats are going to be deployed
is something that still
we need to discuss.
But definitely we want to start our activities
in the country that has been hosting us.
The wildlife biodiversity
in Tanzania and East Africa
makes them particularly vulnerable,
but also one of the main places
at the forefront of the wildlife crime fight.
Not only has Tanzania
seen a huge decline in poaching
of species like elephants,
but they’ve also become much more equipped and advanced.
Tools and technologies
are extremely important.
But it’s really the people on the ground
as well as having strong laws
that will really make and create
the effective change.
There’s no silver bullet in this fight,
but thanks to its singular qualities,
the giant rats prove
they’re more than just pests.
They could be great allies
against the illegal wildlife trade.