Explosives detectionRats trained to detect explosives

Bomb sniffing dogs could be a thing of the past thanks to explosives seeking rats.

Unlike dogs, when rats detect sensitive explosives like land mines they rarely set them off as they weigh less than pound.

CNN reports thatthe Colombian National Police is currently training lab rats to detect hidden explosives. In a demonstration, one rat successfully found an explosive device buried underground in less than a minute.

Luisa Fernanda Mendez Pardo, the head of the explosive detecting rat training program and a specialist in canine explosives training, said a rat’s sense of smell is just as good as a dog’s.

So far Pardo said the experiment has far exceeded her initial expectations.

“As a researcher,” Pardo told CNN, “I can tell you that this project has exceeded the expectations we had at the beginning. We have been able to condition the rats to follow simple verbal commands. We have also trained them to not be afraid of their human handlers.”

The rats have been trained to detect seven different types of explosives including ammonium nitrate, gunpowder, and TNT.

Pardo added that compared to dogs, rats are far more cost-effective.

“With the money it takes to feed a dog per day, you can feed seven rats for seven days,” she said.

Second Lieutenant Edgar Ramirez of the Colombian National Police could think of little negative aspects of using rats other than their relatively short life span.

“These animals live only three to four years, which is a relatively short period of time from a human perspective. On the other hand, they’re very prolific. They reproduce themselves exponentially in a very short time,” Ramirez said.

Colombia is not the only country to use rats to detect explosives. Mozambique has already trained rats to help authorities detect land mines.