A hero-rat, who was found in Minsk and was honored in Cambodia for his courage after saving dozens of lives with his work, has died, according to the NGO that trained him.
Magawa, an African giant rat from Tanzania, helped demolish 225,000 square feet[425,000 sq m]of 42 football fields during his five-year career. After locating more than 100 mines and other explosives, the rodent “retired” last June.
Meet Magawa, he searches for landmines in Cambodia for @HeroRATs.
He’s been awarded a gallantry medal by the @PDSA_HQ. ????https://t.co/2Q1EGWr9xm pic.twitter.com/Th0Jsrmvrs— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) September 25, 2020
Magaua died “quietly” at the weekend, at the age of 8, according to the Belgian NGO APOPO. “All of us at APOPO are saddened by the loss of Magaua and are grateful for the incredible work he has done,” the organization said in a statement.
Magaua appeared to be in good health and spent most of the weekend playing with his usual enthusiasm. But then he started to look tired, slept often and had no appetite.
APOPO, which operates in Asia and Africa, trained Magaua by rewarding his success with his favorite delicacies, bananas and peanuts. When he spotted TNT, he had learned to scrape the ground to “inform” his fellow people. This technique, which is not based on detecting metallic materials, is faster than using a metal detector. Magawa, a 70-centimeter-tall animal, could comb an area the size of a tennis court in 30 minutes – a man equipped with a metal detector would take four days.
In September 2020, Magaua was awarded the Gold Medal of the British Animal Welfare Association PDSA, which honors one animal each year for its bravery. He was the first rat to receive this honor, which is considered equivalent to the awarding of the Cross of George to humans.
According to the PDSA, about 4-6 million mines were planted in Cambodia between 1975-1998 and more than 64,000 people were killed by their explosions.
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