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HERORATS AT WORK
Ratting on wildlife crime
Meet Jane
Jane is a young female wildlife detection rat based in Morogoro, Tanzania. Named by Dr. Jane Goodall during her visit to APOPO in July 2024, HeroRAT Jane is training to detect illegally trafficked wildlife products, including pangolin scales, rhino horn, and elephant ivory.
Job title: Wildlife Detection Rat
Favourite food: Peanuts
Personality: Gentle and playful
Job title: Wildlife Detection Rat
Favourite food: Peanuts
Personality: Gentle and playful
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Finding landmines in Angola
Meet Baraka
Baraka is a sweet and playful young rat that has recently passed his external accreditation and is working in the minefields in Angola. He was trained under expert handlers in Tanzania at APOPO's Training and Innovation Center.
Job title: Mine Detection Rat
Favourite food: Peanuts
Personality: Playful and curious
Job title: Mine Detection Rat
Favourite food: Peanuts
Personality: Playful and curious
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Sniffing out tuberculosis
Meet Tamasha
Tamasha is a female tuberculosis detection rat based in Morogoro, Tanzania. When working in the lab, she can search 100 human sputum samples in 20 minutes, much faster than a lab technician. Adopt Tamasha today and help us fight TB.
Job title: Tuberculosis Detection Rat
Favourite food: Peanuts
Personality: Hardworking, motivated, and playful!
Job title: Tuberculosis Detection Rat
Favourite food: Peanuts
Personality: Hardworking, motivated, and playful!
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Finding landmines in Cambodia
Meet Imeldo
Imeldo is a highly trained and newly accredited Mine Detection Rat, or ‘HeroRAT’ for short. HeroRATs like Imeldo use their remarkable sense of smell to safely sniff out explosives faster and more accurately than existing methods.
Job title: Mine Detection Rat
Favourite food: Bananas
Personality: Shy at first, but curious and hardworking
Job title: Mine Detection Rat
Favourite food: Bananas
Personality: Shy at first, but curious and hardworking
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The highly developed sense of smell and light weight of our African giant pouched rats, nicknamed ‘HeroRATs’, make them ideal detectors of landmines and tuberculosis.
HERORATS IN ACTION
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HeroRATs detecting landmines
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HeroRATs detecting tuberculosis
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HeroRATs in research & development
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HeroRATs detecting landmines
HOW THEY SPEED UP LANDMINE DETECTION
HeroRATs sniff out the chemical compounds of TNT (explosive) found in landmines and other explosive remnants of war. They ignore scrap metal making them much faster at detecting landmines than metal detectors.
HOW THEY HELP TO DETECT TUBERCULOSIS
The APOPO tuberculosis detection rats check TB samples collected from local clinics. Any samples they indicate as suspect are reconfirmed in APOPO's lab using WHO-endorsed methods. Our research program shows that the rats can increase detection rates of partner clinics by 40%.
What We Do
Saving Lives
Landmines and tuberculosis kill. Your support enables people to live, work, and play without fear.
Training Animals
There are over 300 animals under our care. Your support ensures they're treated like the heroes they are.
Social Change
APOPO empowers people and communities. Your support helps create jobs and improves economic and environmental conditions.