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rats taught to detect landmines

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ElFenix said:
at $8,000 training each, nope.
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Leave it to the military to spend $8000 to train a rat when they could just send a few thousand rats out into the field, thereby detecting the mines, detonating them, and killing a few thousand rats - all for a fraction of the price.
 
Nothing new..... Mine detecting Rats - Feb 2004, National Geographic :hmm:

APOPO came up with the idea of using rats while searching for a cheap and efficient way to detect mines. A trained rat costs about U.S. $2,000—about $10,000 less than a mine-sniffing dog. Other advantages include the rats' relatively small size (15 inches/40 centimeters), which make them easy to maintain and transport; their resistance to most tropical diseases; and their highly developed sense of smell.

"Rats are able to detect most types of mines," said Weetjens. "In principle they could detect all mines because of the explosive content, if it weren't that some devices have been manufactured with accurate sealing, which leaves no escape for explosive trace vapors. But these can easily be found with a metal detector."

Rats conditioned to TNT odors are trained to walk on a leash, which is attached to a bar that moves forward into a suspected field. When the animals smell explosive material they scratch or bite at the location. The rat's light weight—one-and-a-half to three pounds (0.7 to 1.5 kilograms)—does not trigger the mine.

A rat and handler can search 180 square yards (150 square meters) in about half an hour.

"After that, reliability of concentration for rats as well as trainers goes down," Weetjens said. This isn't a problem, he notes, since well-rested, replacement rats are available.

Currently the company has more than 100 rats in different stages of training at its facility in Tanzania, north of Mozambique.

Rats begin training at the age of five weeks when juveniles are weaned from their mothers. A positive reinforcement method known as clicker training is used. When the animal does something right, the trainer clicks a small, handheld noisemaker before giving the rat a piece of banana or peanut as a reward. (The same method is often used in America to train dogs in obedience schools.)
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Bees too.... :awe:

Meanwhile, University of Montana researchers in Missoula have trained honeybees (Apis mellifera) as an efficient and low-cost means to screen large areas for hidden explosives.

The researchers note that most landmines and buried unexploded ordnance (UXO) leak explosives into the environment. During their tests, honeybees swarmed areas where explosive residue was present.

The insects had a 98 percent success rate in tests performed last year. Researchers said the location of the residue can be mapped to provide a picture of the extent, location, and density of bomb-contaminated areas.

"The beauty of this approach is that bees are indigenous to every climate on Earth, and there are beekeepers everywhere," said Susan Bender, a chemist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, who worked on the project.
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