Tiny Rat Heroes: Revolutionizing Search and Rescue Operations
One of the key advantages of using rats in rescue operations is their size. A rat can search an area the size of a tennis court in just 30 minutes, while a well-trained de-miner would take four days to cover the same area.
From Landmines to Lifesavers: APOPO’s Hero Rats Revolutionize Disaster Rescue. A project that trains rats to locate humans within quake debris sites
Natural disasters, often exacerbated by the climate crisis, have had a significant impact globally, causing economic losses of $313 billion in 2022 alone. As climate change continues to progress, the frequency and severity of events such as earthquakes and typhoons are expected to increase, leading to even more devastating effects on human lives.
In this context, expertly-trained search and rescue teams quickly mobilize to locate and extricate victims trapped inside collapsed building. However, such efforts are slowed by limited tools that are capable of closely looking under the debris.
It is here a project of significance has been devised. Path-breaking results have been achieved in training rats in rescue operations. As rats are small in size and extremely agile, they have been seen as complementing the existing search and rescue initiatives.
Hero Rats project by Belgian non-profit APOPO
Thanks to a project by the Belgian non-profit APOPO, this project is aimed at training rats to locate humans while equipped with a technology-enabled backpack to enable real-time wireless audio-visual communication from within the debris site. The backpacks being developed by APOPO in a collaboration with Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands, runs the technology developed by electrical engineer Sander Verdiesen. The project titled ‘Hero Rats’ is spearheaded by 33-year-old research scientist Dr. Donna Kean from Glasgow.
The project began in 2021, first proposed after volunteer search and rescue organization GEA approached APOPO to work together in 2017. The rats of APOPO (Anti-Personnel Mine Demining Product Development), founded in 1998 by two students at the University of Antwerp, have now detected more than 130,000 landmines and other explosives worldwide.
The Advantage of Rats
One of the key advantages of using rats in rescue operations is their size. A rat can search an area the size of a tennis court in just 30 minutes, while a well-trained de-miner would take four days to cover the same area. Additionally, the rats are not at risk of detonating mines because they are too light.
Currently, APOPO is expanding the use of these remarkable rats to locate victims in disaster areas and search for contraband in container terminals. The Hero Rats project is a testament to the incredible potential of these small yet mighty creatures in revolutionizing search and rescue operations, making a significant impact in saving lives and ensuring safety in disaster-stricken areas.
Watch the Hero Rats in action
Since 2007, APOPO’s rats have also been deployed to detect the specific odors associated with tuberculosis. They have successfully identified tuberculosis more than 25,000 times in nearly 850,000 sputum samples from potentially infected individuals in African countries. Remarkably, these rats can check 100 samples in 20 minutes, whereas a researcher using microscopy can only process 25 samples a day.
