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Rescue Rats!

Soon survivors of  disasters could be saved by . . .  rats wearing backpacks?  

Image of a rat outside wearing a vest & bell

© APOPO

    There’s just been a terrible earthquake. You’ve been called to the scene to help. You have a very important job: to find people trapped in the rubble.

    Sirens howl. Dust swirls in the air. Wrecked buildings lie all around you

    You race under fallen concrete and climb over pieces of broken metal. You’ve been training for this your entire life. Now it’s your chance to be the hero you are meant to be.

    But you’re not an ordinary rescuer

    You’re not a firefighter or a doctor

    You are a rat.

Image of a person giving a vial of water to a rat

© APOPO

Tasty Treats 
When a rat completes the task, it gets a treat of mashed banana and avocado mixed with rat food.

Rat Facts

    Today an organization called APOPO is training African giant pouched rats to help rescue survivors of disasters. That might be surprising. After all, rats are known for eating garbage and spreading diseases

    But rats are also very smart. They are as easy to train as dogs. They have a great sense of smell, so they’re good at finding what they’ve been trained to find. Plus, they’re small. That helps them climb through rubble and get into tight places that dogs or people can’t reach

    When it comes to rats, APOPO has a lot of experience. The group has been working with rats for 25 years. It has already trained these rodents to sniff out bombs and deadly illnesses. Now scientists are teaching the rats a new skill.

Image of a rat with a camera strapped to its back

© APOPO

This rat’s tiny backpack has a camera!

Tiny Heroes

    Training a rat for search and rescue is a lot like training a dog. It’s all about rewards. First, a rat learns to run to its trainer when it hears a beep. That earns it a treatrat food mixed with banana and avocado. Yum!

    Next, the rat learns to pull a bell on its backpack once it finds a survivor. In a real rescue situation, pulling the bell will send a location signal to rescuers. At that point, human rescuers will hopefully know the survivor’s location thanks to the backpack’s GPS tracker. The backpack could also have a microphone and speaker, similar to a phone. This allows the rescuers to talk to the survivor.

Image of a rat researcher with rat on shoulder

© APOPO

Donna Kean

    So far, training has been a success. Donna Kean is the leader of this project. “Rats are quite curious and like to explore,” she says. “That’s key for search and rescue.” Most of the rats she’s worked with have learned their task quickly

    If you’re ever in need of rescue, look out for a tiny hero with a backpack. That rat might just save your life

Leveled Articles (2)
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Weird But True

Higher Level: Rescue Rats!

Read or print a 800L-900L version of this article in magazine view.

PDF

Weird But True

Lower Level: Rescue Rats!

Read or print a 500L-600L version of this article in magazine view.

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