Rats, easy to train and agile, fast searchers by nature, have turned out to be the ideal way to look for survivors after a natural disaster, especially when equipped with a tiny smart-backpack.
Dr. Donna Kean, from Scotland, has been working with a nonprofit called APOPO on a project called Hero Rats. It only takes two weeks to get the rats trained and so far seven have been fully trained to enter debris, find a survivor and trigger an alarm. Soon the whole team will head to Turkey, which is prone to earthquakes, to put the little heroes to the test.
Though they are still wearing the prototype backpacks for training, they will be equipped with specialist packs containing a microphone, video equipment and a location tracker to help rescue teams find and communicate with survivors. The hope is that they will help save many lives when disaster strikes.
Dogs have been used for this purpose in the past, but the rats have an extra advantage in their smaller size and increased flexibility. Other rats are being trained for other Hero activities, like detecting landmines and TB.
Hat tip: Good News Network
