Posted on 04/05/2026 4:55:08 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A famous mine-clearing rat, who was awarded a gold medal for his heroism, has been commemorated with the world's first statue dedicated to a landmine-detecting rat.
Magawa, who lived to eight years old, sniffed out over 100 landmines and other explosives in Cambodia during his five-year career that started in 2016.
Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, was trained by the Belgian charity Apopo before moving to Cambodia to begin his bomb-sniffing career in 2016.
Using his acute sense of smell and training to detect a chemical compound within explosives, Magawa would then alert human handlers of mines that could be later safely removed.
During his time, Magawa cleared more than 141,000 square metres (1,517,711 sq ft) of land - the equivalent of 20 football pitches – and could search a field the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
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And he died a natural death of old age.
Sigh...
Lauditory! And he did it for peanuts! 🙂
Really cute rat.
I. hope they put a lot of statues of him around town, he’s far cuter than any Dem
What's the statue made out of?
He should have been given tiny clothes and a bomb suit by Kathy Bates who sewed them for squirrels in The Rat Race.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fuvaEYzDec
Before Goldberg’s View career.
Too funny!
Haven’t read any of those silly Harry Harrison novels in decades!
Hmm, a rodent of unusual size. Inconceivable!
Did he sire future generations of heroes?
I’m certain he was afforded that opportunity.
———————
*Where Magawa ended, Ben begins.
And this time he is not alone.
LOL.
Fortunately, I was going through a distracting time back then, and ‘Ben’ didn’t wind up on my radar at all.
Magawa was definitely NOT a Demon Rat. :D
In the US this wouldn’t be done.
We have a 16 foot bronze statue of Lenin.
Haha, even rats can be heroes.
Stainless steel?
Loved that series. Too bad some of his later work was nastily atheist. Ah well...
The enemy should not have put cheese in their landmines.
They were a favorite of mine.
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