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Magawa with medals of valor: rodents like them are used in Africa and Asia to search for landmines
Photo: HANDOUT / AFP
Just nine months after being awarded the highest British animal order for bravery, landmine sniffer Magawa is retiring.
The Gambian hamster rat, originally from Tanzania, had helped clear mines over an area of 225,000 square meters during its five-year career as a sniffer, as the Belgian aid organization Apopo announced.
Although he is still in good health.
But after the little rodent found a total of 71 landmines and 38 unexploded explosive devices, he was "a bit tired," said the Apopo program director in Cambodia, Michael Heiman, the AFP news agency.
A life as a pensioner is now the best for him.
With his hit rate, the little rodent is the most successful rat from the Belgian organization that trained him.
The rat can search an area the size of a tennis court for mines within half an hour.
With a metal detector, this would take four days.
Magawa itself is too light to trigger a mine.
If the rodent has discovered an explosive device, it scratches the ground with its paws to alert the mine defuser.
He is rewarded with bananas and peanuts.
As a pensioner, he will continue to eat his favorite foods.
Last September, Magawa was awarded the gold medal of the British non-profit animal organization PDSA for his exceptional service - the equivalent of the British George's Cross for human heroes.
In retirement, Magawa will live in the same cage as before and follow the same daily routine, said an Apopo spokeswoman, according to information from the AP news agency.
But he will no longer go to the minefields.
He is given time every day to play, as well as regular exercise and health checks.
He is left in a larger cage with a sandpit and a running bike for 20-30 minutes a day.
Apopo employs dozens of these clever rodents in Africa and Asia to search for landmines and to sniff out tuberculosis.
According to the organization, 20 newly trained landmine sniffer rats recently arrived in Cambodia.
It will be a great challenge for them to succeed Magawa's successor.
"He's a very special rat," Heiman said.
"Of course we will miss him on the missions."
ime / AP / AFP