Reading Time: < 1 minute
The award-winning rodent is ending his five-year career, during which he sniffed out 71 land mines and 38 items of unexploded artillery.
A giant African pouched rat who spent years detecting land mines in Cambodia’s countryside has come to the end of his working days.
Magawa, originally from Tanzania, has been the most successful rodent to be trained and overseen by a Belgian nonprofit, APOPO, to sniff out landmines and alert de-miners so they can safely remove explosives.
Announcing the rodent’s retirement on Saturday, APOPO said Magawa had helped clear mines from 225,000 square meters (2,421,879 square feet) of land.
