Video: African rats are real heroes that can save thousands of lives
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
There are rats that run around dumps and trash cans, there are rats that scare passers-by in tunnels and entrances on a dark night, and there are rats that save human lives. It costs 6,000 euros to teach one such animal to his craft. So what can these rodents do after such an expensive training?
The Belgian organization APOPO, which develops products for the detection of anti-personnel mines. Such means can be special mine detectors with a probe, which is controlled by a person; these can be trained dogs that can react to the smell of an explosive. However, the Gambian pouched rat has proven to be the most effective in detecting mines. They are small enough so that the mine does not explode, even if the animal completely stands on it, they perfectly hear the smell of explosives, and a 7-month training of one rodent costs three times less than a similar training of a dog.
The Gambian rat training program began in 1997, then still in Belgium, and now continues in Mozambique. These huge rodents are called "hero rats". A trained rat can examine an area of about 200 square meters for mines in 20 minutes, which would take a person 25 hours of work.
On average in the world in 2013, there were 9 accidents every day associated with the detonation of antipersonnel mines. Each such trained rat can save thousands of lives. It itself is not undermined, since usually mines react to a weight of more than 5 kg, and a one and a half kilogram animal can stand unhindered directly on the explosive device itself. If the animal falls ill during its service, it is provided with medical care up to surgical operations. After 4-5 years, the rats go to their well-deserved retirement to eat bananas and run around the fields without a special task.
A huge number of lives have been saved thanks to special programs that train animals to detect explosives. No less of them were saved thanks to trained dogs that search for living people under the rubble of destroyed buildings. So, after the catastrophe of September 11, 2001 in the USA brave dogs worked day and night together with firefighters and rescuers, they made their way through the rubble, looking for victims.
Recommended:
How an impostor doctor saved thousands of children's lives and changed the course of medical science
In the distant 30s, a shocking attraction appeared in America where a "doctor" named Martin Coney, later nicknamed the incubator doctor, demonstrated premature babies in incubators. The ticket cost 25 cents and there was no end to those wishing to see little babies
African painting. Gallery of American African woman Gathinja Yamokoski
Real African art. This is the name of the gallery, which was founded by the artist Gathinja Yamokoski, who was born in Kenya and later moved to the United States. In her TrueAfricanArt gallery, an American African woman tries to collect the most interesting works of African artists, not forgetting about her own creativity
NKVD executioners: How was the fate of people on whose conscience tens of thousands of ruined lives
In the 1930s, the state punitive system badly needed people who were ready for anything in the full sense of the word. By order to carry out mass executions, to knock out the necessary testimony - not every person is capable of this. And therefore the executioners of the NKVD were highly valued, lived in special conditions, their position was considered even honorable. On the conscience of such executors are tens of thousands of those killed, often sentenced to death on trumped-up charges
The feat of a military doctor: how a Russian hero saved the lives of thousands of prisoners of a fascist concentration camp
"He who saves one life, saves the whole world" - this phrase is well known to us from the film "Schindler's List", dedicated to the history of saving Polish Jews from death during the Holocaust. The same phrase could become the motto of Georgy Sinyakov, a Russian doctor who was a prisoner of a German concentration camp for several years and during this time not only saved the lives of thousands of soldiers, but also helped them escape from captivity
Bill Gates shared his thoughts on "The Real Bill Gates", and this message echoed in the hearts of hundreds of thousands of people
Wealthy people are called celestials, imagining that their life is completely different from the life of ordinary people with moderate income. On the one hand, there is a grain of truth in this - the "celestials" are not constrained by financial issues, and their aspirations are limited only by their own ambitions. However, the private life of even the wealthiest people consists of exactly the same joys and sorrows as everyone else. Recently Bill Gates, who for many years was considered the richest man on the planet, published