Attention pays attention to trained mice searching land mines

Military training on animalsAlthough it has been repeated from long ago, in recent years it seems that the way to use mice to remove landmines is drawing much attention. Mice have olfactions equal to or higher than those of dogs, and they discover land mines by accurately capturing the slight smells emitted by landmines.

Although it is said that removal of landmines is still fundamental to manual work today, it costs huge cost and time, can mice solve this problem?

Details are below.
Homepage | Herorat.org

Smell a rat? Rescue rodents used to sniff out land mines | Mail Online

Landmines can be sprayed at a very low cost and in a short time, and the complete removal and processing requires a long time for a huge cost, so that Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia and Africa where the conflict still continues It is a big problem in the center.

But,Special heavy machinery for landmine removalAlthough mechanization is being promoted such as development, the removal is basically mainly manual work. Due to the requirement for detailed operation within the dangerous situation, both work force and physical strength became a serious work and it was not possible to improve efficiency quite easily.

Therefore, a joint venture by researchers in Belgium and Tanzania,APOPOIsWe advocate using the mouse's olfactory sense to remove land mines, Trying to solve this problem by supplying special trained mice.

The mouse has a good sense of smell and can scratch the smell of explosives that can not be detected even by dogs, and in the unlikely event of touching a landmine it is not easy to explode because of its light weight, the cost is also low, it is small and easy to carry Easy to apply even if the environment or owner changes, it is exactly right for landmine removal that tends to be operated in a hard environment. The speed is also considerable, and it is possible to check 100 square meters equivalent to two days of manual work in 30 minutes.

A mouse trained in the UK, "Kofi". It seems that training is being conducted for 20 minutes per day.


This is "Bamin" who is in charge of duties in Mozambique. It may be introduced to the British army as well.


I will search for mines while coming back and forth with a feeling like this movie.
YouTube - Rats detecting landmines


If you find a landmine you can scratch it like this and let it know. Mine is hard to react because of weight


In addition, it seems that research and training on whether to use it to detect pathogenic bacteria such as M. tuberculosis by using its excellent olfaction is advanced. Efficiency will certainly rise, but it is also a fact that psychologically it makes me worried with quite cruel usage. I pray that a way to avoid wasting life without human beings or animals will be developed and that it will be a peaceful world that will allow us not to use weapons like landmines.