Will African rodents join hunt for IEDs?

• Author: Beidel, Eric
• Position: Defense Technology Newswire

* In Tanzania, rats are sniffing out landmines.

Eventually they may be able to help the U.S. Army deal with the deadly problem of improvised explosive devices.

The Army Research Office recently awarded a $740,000 grant to Oklahoma State University zoology professor Alex-Ophir to find out which rat personalities are the best for detecting bombs. Ophir and his team will observe African giant-pouched rats in the wild and perform tests to determine how trainable they are and what traits they display in various settings. Researchers eventually want to identify genetic signatures early enough so they car tell from birth which rats will be good at which tasks.

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"We really know very little about these animals, yet they are being used in very impressive applications," Ophir said.

Ophir has a partner organization in APOPO, a Dutch acronym that means Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development. The nonprofit has been training rats to detect landmines in Tanzania. During a trip to observe the group's work, the professor watched rodents attached to harnesses zigzag down roads and dig at the dirt when they came upon buried...