Large, fuzzy, backpack-wearing rodents may soon help first responders locate and communicate with survivors trapped in disaster sites.
The rodents are currently being trained to sniff out people trapped under rubble and can now do complex multiroom searches for victims, bringing the “hero rats” a step closer to being deployed at real disaster sites.
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Donna Kean is pioneering the search-and-rescue project at APOPO, a Belgian non-profit organisation that trains African pouched rats (Cricetomys ansorgei) for humanitarian purposes. Its hero rats are already sniffing out thousands of landmines in South-East Asia and detecting cases of tuberculosis in Africa.
The rats range in size, from roughly the size of a large guinea pig to that of a small house cat. Because they have poor eyesight and use smell to navigate their environment, they are naturally adept at picking up odours that humans would miss. “If there is something where you can use scent detection, our rats are probably going to be quite useful,” says Kean, who works at APOPO’s Tanzania headquarters. Their natural curiosity also makes them particularly well-suited for search and rescue, she says.
The training process begins with handlers releasing the rats into a practice disaster site. The animals use their nose to scope out the area. When they pick up the scent of a person, they pull a ball attached to a custom backpack, which emits a sound. When the trainers are ready to recall the rat, they play a beeping tone that the animals have been trained to know means they should return for a tasty treat like mashed fruits and special rodent biscuits.
Currently, Kean’s group of seven rescue rodents can search a multiroom building littered with household items like dishwashers and furniture. After another year or so of training, they will eventually be able to perform the search sequence in real-world disaster sites, like the aftermath of earthquakes. Because African pouched rats can live up to 10 years in human care, trainers have plenty of time to bring them up to speed.
The backpacks the rodents now wear are just prototypes, but they will be upgraded in coming months. The new model being developed by engineers at Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands will include a location transmitter, video camera and a two-way communication system.
Kean admits that disaster survivors may be a bit confused or even alarmed if they encounter a backpack-wearing rat, so a critical part of the system upgrade is that it will enable a rat to announce its search-and-rescue role. Exactly how this will work isn’t clear yet, but one possibility is that a pre-recorded message will play when the rat pulls the ball on its backpack.
Despite the complexity of the different tasks, most rats take to the training process quickly and eagerly. “It’s like a playground for them,” says Kean. “There are all these things for them to crawl around on and go over and under and sniff. I definitely get the impression that they enjoy the work.”
Hero rats won’t replace search-and-rescue dogs, but could complement their efforts – their size enables the rodents to better navigate tight spaces. The rats are also easy to transport and can work with numerous trainers, unlike most canines. “As long as the person knows what to expect out of that rat and when to reward it, then basically anybody can work them,” says Jessica Sutherland, who works with retired hero rats at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium in Washington state. After a roughly five-year-long career sniffing out landmines or tuberculosis, rescue rats go into retirement, where they stay under the care of APOPO trainers.
“We’ve got a whole retirement village at our headquarters here,” says Kean. “They’ve got bigger enclosures and lots of exercise and playtime and amazing diet – like, better than mine.”
Kean’s rats are slated to begin search-and-rescue work in Turkey next year, joining dogs in earthquake rescue efforts.
Sutherland acknowledges that rats often have a sinister reputation, but she hopes people keep an open mind about the rodent rescuers. “In the United States, we have a natural stigma to think of rats as pests,” she says. “The idea of using them to work for people… that’s kind of a new concept.”
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