The land-mine sniffing rodent Magawa, who had successfully found more than a hundred land mines and explosives in Cambodia, died over the weekend. The rat was eight years old. The heroic rodent had also won a gold medal for his heroism. It was the most successful rat trained by the Belgian charity Apopo, Cambodia. Magawa was capable of searching a field the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes.
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The land-mine sniffing rodent Magawa, who had successfully found more than a hundred land mines and explosives in Cambodia, died over the weekend. The rat was eight years old. The heroic rodent had also won a gold medal for his heroism. It was the most successful rat trained by the Belgian charity Apopo. Magawa was capable of searching a field the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes.
The sad news was confirmed by the Apopo charity authorities where the rat was trained to alert its human handlers about the mines so they can be safely removed. Magawa had retired in June last year after acquiring the record for the most landmines detected by a rat over a career.
In 2020, Magawa was awarded the PDSA Gold Medal for his “life-saving devotion to duty” becoming the first rat to be given the medal in the charity’s 77-year history.
The 1.2 kg rat was in good health and spent the last week playing with his usual enthusiasm, but during the weekend “he started to slow down, napping more and showing less interest in food in his last days”, APOPO said in a statement.
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