THE REAL HERO RAT - MAGAWA

Magawa has cleared more than 141,000 square metres of land, the equivalent of some 20 football pitches, sniffing out 71 land mines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance.

With an estimation of 60 million people still live in 59 countries affected by un-cleared landmines. Cambodia has one of largest landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) contaminations in the world. Between 1970 and 1990, the prevalence of landmines in Cambodia led to the highest percentage of physically disabled inhabitants in the world. The Cambodian conflict was the first war in history in which landmines claimed more victims combatants and non-combatants than any other weapon. The Gambian pouched rat, also known commonly as the African giant pouched rat, is a species of nocturnal pouched rat. The Gambian pouched rat has very poor eyesight, so depends on its senses of smell and hearing. APOPO is a non-profit organization that trains African giant pouched rats to save lives by detecting landmines and tuberculosis.

Magawa was one of the most successful rat trained by the Belgian charity Apopo to alert human handlers about the mines so they can be safely removed.
It is part of a cohort of rats bred for this purpose. He was born in Tanzania in 2014, and in 2016, moved to Cambodia’s northwestern city of Siem Reap, home of the famed Angkor temples, to begin his bomb-sniffing career.
Magawa won a People's Dispensary for Sick Animals Gold Medal -- the highest honor given to heroic animals by the U.K.-based veterinary charity -- for his work in Cambodia in 2020.

Magawa died peacefully on Jan 12th 2021.
The death of Magawa was announced a day after three mine removal experts working for another group were killed by an accidental explosion of an anti-tank mine in Cambodia's northern province of Preah Vihear. Magawa will leave lasting legacy in the lives that he saved as a detection rat in Cambodia.

The Gold Medalist “The Magawa.

#MAGAWA #HERORAT

Видео THE REAL HERO RAT - MAGAWA канала KSK Reels