When Army Maj. John Ringquist first encountered an African giant pouched rat in Tanzania, he was surprised by how affectionate it was.“They’re gentle, friendly animals,” said Ringquist, a history ...

The adorable Gambian pouched rats outperform both metal detectors and bomb-sniffing dogs when it comes to finding unexploded devices. They can also work a lot faster - covering more miles of land ...

APOPO’s rats are cost-efficient scent detection tools ... which are often trained to sniff out bombs. But, dogs often can’t ...

To date, thanks to the rats and impact team, 107,633 landmines and unexploded bombs have been destroyed ... the animals are great for speeding up detection. This means that once-dangerous land ...