Magawa

Magawa (November 2013 – January 2022) was a Gambian pouched rat (Cricetomys ansorgei) that worked as a HeroRAT sniffing out landmines in Cambodia for the non-governmental organization APOPO (in English, Anti-Personnel Landmines Removal Product Development) which trains rats to detect landmines and tuberculosis. Magawa was the most successful landmine-sniffing rat in the organization's history, and received the PDSA Gold Medal in 2020.

Magawa
SpeciesGambian pouched rat
SexMale
BornNovember 2013 (2013-11)
Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania
DiedJanuary 2022 (2022-02) (aged 8)
Cambodia
OccupationLandmine detector
EmployerAPOPO
AwardsPDSA Gold Medal (2020)
A HeroRAT being rewarded with a banana
Cricetomys gambianus is a species of giant pouched rat.

Early life

Magawa was born in November 2013 at the APOPO headquarters in the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania. After being trained to sniff out landmines as a HeroRAT, he was moved to Siem Reap, Cambodia, in 2016 to begin landmine-removal work.[1][2]

Career

From 2016 to 2021, Magawa cleared more than 22.5 hectares (56 acres) of land in Cambodia. In that time, he found 71 landmines and 38 instances of other unexploded ordnance.[3][4] Magawa was trained to sniff out TNT in explosives, allowing him to disregard scrap metal that would confuse metal detectors.[5] He was able to search for landmines far faster than humans due to his exceptional sense of smell and light weight, which prevented him from detonating the mines.[2] He received the PDSA Gold Medal on September 25, 2020, for his work, and was the first rat to do so.[3][5] Magawa was the most successful mine-sniffing rat in APOPO's history when he received his medal,[5] and was described by the program's manager in Cambodia as a "very exceptional rat" upon his retirement.[4]

Retirement and death

Magawa retired from bomb sniffing in June 2021 owing to his old age, as is standard for APOPO's HeroRATs.[4] He spent a number of weeks mentoring 20 newly-recruited rats before ultimately retiring to a life of "snacking on bananas and peanuts".[6][7] Magawa died peacefully in early January 2022, and was the organization's most successful HeroRAT at the time of his death.[1][8]

References
  1. "In Loving Memory of Magawa". APOPO. 11 January 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  2. Schaverien, Anna (11 January 2022). "Magawa, Rat That Hunted Land Mines, Dies in Retirement". New York Times. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  3. "PDSA Gold Medalist Magawa Retiring". APOPO. 3 June 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  4. "'Hero rat' Magawa retires from Cambodian bomb sniffing career". Al Jazeera. 5 June 2021. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  5. Schaverien, Anna (25 September 2020). "Rat That Sniffs Out Land Mines Receives Award for Bravery". New York Times. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  6. Noori Farzan, Antonia (5 June 2021). "Cambodia's hero rat, Magawa, is retiring after sniffing out land mines for five years". Washington Post. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  7. "Magawa the hero rat retires from job detecting landmines". BBC. 11 June 2021. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
  8. "Magawa, the landmine-sniffing hero rat, dies aged eight". BBC. 11 January 2022. Retrieved 5 February 2022.
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