US EditionA Small Rodent Hero Left a Giant Legacy. Now, Cambodia Honors This Famous Bomb-Sniffing Rat With a Seven-Foot Statue
The seven-foot tribute honors a rat that detected more than 100 land mines and helped clear 1.52 million square feet, officials said.
- On Friday, Cambodia unveiled a seven-foot stone statue of Magawa in Siem Reap, honoring the African giant pouched rat's life-saving mine-detection career near the International Day for Mine Awareness.
- Trained by the Belgium-based NGO APOPO, Magawa cleared over 1.52 million square feet during his five-year career and became the first rat to receive the PDSA Gold Medal in 2020.
- Searching a tennis court in 30 minutes—work requiring humans several days—Magawa helped identify dozens of land mines, ensuring children and farmers could safely traverse previously dangerous land.
- Magawa died in 2022, but his legacy continues through successor Ronin, who set a world record last year by detecting 109 mines as an estimated 6 million land mines remain in Cambodia.
- Michael Raine, an official with APOPO, said "there's still a huge task ahead of us," as Cambodia aims to be land mine free by 2030 despite millions already cleared.
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19 Articles
Berliner Morgenpost
Magawa, the little hamster rat, has accomplished something extraordinary and is now being honored. Behind this lies a serious issue.
Statue erected to honor landmine-sniffing rat in Cambodia
Magawa, the African giant pouched rat, saved countless lives and limbs by sniffing out landmines and unexploded ordnance in Cambodia. Cambodia has millions of landmines and unexploded bombs as a result of decades of war and bombing by the United States. — Read the rest The post Statue erected to honor landmine-sniffing rat in Cambodia appeared first on Boing Boing.
A monument has been erected in Cambodia for Magawa, a rat that has detected more than a hundred landmines and other explosive devices. The rat was trained by the Belgian charity Apopo, which has been training these animals, known as hero rats, to detect mines since the 1990s, the British BBC reported a few days ago.
A Small Rodent Hero Left a Giant Legacy. Now, Cambodia Honors This Famous Bomb-Sniffing Rat With a Seven-Foot Statue
Magawa the African giant pouched rat cleared more 1.5 million square feet of land mines during his five-year career, making him one of the most successful bomb-sniffing rodents in the country’s history
Le Huffington Post
Laminute.infoMagawa, a mine detector rat that has been able to locate more than 100 explosives in Cambodia, is now celebrated by a new statue.
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