Giant Rats: Sniffing Out Wildlife Crime | Wild Targets

Okay.

You may not like rats.

Oh.

But these ones are pretty impressive.

Not just because they are

the largest rat species on the planet,

but because they’re the first rats

trained to tell you.

Hey, there might be a rhino horn

hidden here.

These rats are being trained

by a group of scientists and trainers

in an NGO called APOPO.

to detect illegal wildlife products.

But wait a minute.

Why use rats for anti-trafficking?

It’s a mouse

We have a native mouse.

We focus on four items that are

trafficked in many countries in Africa.

Pangolin, ivory, rhino and
African blackwood.

they are three main reasons

that can describe

why to use rats with these activities.

So rats are pretty smart.

They have what scientists call

cognitive capabilities

and can learn to remember.

how pangolin

how ivory

how rhino horn smells.

They don’t need to forget that

they need to look for those items.

come back to us and indicate us

and inform us

Which leads us to another

cognitive ability

Rats are unable to speak human language.

We use their behavior to teach them

to indicate when they find something.

Just like dogs.

Rats can learn

how to do tricks for treats.

It’s called

We start training rats

when they are around ten weeks.

We start with socializing

These little vests

are key to establishing communication with the rats.

The trainers teach them to pull down the metal ball in their necks…

It means for us: I found something.

Then we introduce the samples

for indication

so that the rat gets to know

to associate the scent,

the indication, plus the rewarding.

We use two groups of samples.

One is what we call targets.

And the others that we call non-targets.

When the rats ignore the non targets

and identify the targets, they get rewarded.

And that is reinforced over and over and over.

Rats now know that they need
to be looking for these others

odors in the space.

So what makes the rats sense of smell

better than ours?

Our olfactory bulb is small compared

with the olfactory bulb of the rats.

Having a bigger bulb

allows the rats to be great at two things:

One: to detect tiny concentrations

of odors,

and two:

the ability to detect one specific scent

that could be masked

by other strong or similar smells.

They were born with this amazing

capability of detecting odors.

But we need to tune that capability

with training.

Currently we are doing

four types of training

That is leash,

Then we have trolley.

We have container

where you let the rat to go do a free search.

Then we have the car

where you place the rat

go sniff on the ventilation of a container.

All this daily training is performed

in the training site.

In order for them to get used to the port.

Wildlife trafficking

is a really tricky issue to tackle.

It’s a global trade involving

many countries and routes

around the globe

that constantly change

seaports play a significant role,

And that includes ports like Dar es Salaam,

The criminal gangs are getting

so creative

with the way that they’re moving

illegal wildlife products,

which,

you know, at times

makes it very difficult to, detect,

because it’s

smaller quantities

going in all types of vehicles.

Some huge and hard to enter

like big containers.

Which brings us

to the last quality of these rats.

Even if these rats are the largest ones

in the world,

they are still small and sneaky.

Their body morphology

allows them to go places

where humans can’t.

So it’s it’s an advantage

having an animal with this size

because they can move fast between they

the small spaces

This size also makes them really fast

and efficient.

You don’t need to use a lot of the space

to to move the rats.

How big a rat is may not seem

important at first glance,

but we must not forget that:

The illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be about

$23 billion annually.

We’re talking about,

organized groups

who have a lot of resources behind them.

Almost every country in the entire world

is somehow involved

in the illegal wildlife trade.

So it’s important

that flexible strategies

that include new tools

that are easy to maintain and transport.

And this is really why

we need

to be working together

with these ports and ports authorities,

We have the partnership

with, seaport authorities

and Tanzanian wildlife authorities.

So we train our rats in our headquarters,

and then we complemented the training,

taking the rats to be trained

on the site of deployment.

The team has been testing the rats in the seaport

for two years, 2023 and 2024, showing promising results.

We are now near

the 90% accuracy of these rats detecting

the wildlife products.

They aim to finish the tests and training by 2025.

Where the rats are going to be deployed

is something that still

we need to discuss.

But definitely we want to start our activities

in the country that has been hosting us.

The wildlife biodiversity

in Tanzania and East Africa

makes them particularly vulnerable,

but also one of the main places

at the forefront of the wildlife crime fight.

Not only has Tanzania

seen a huge decline in poaching

of species like elephants,

but they’ve also become much more equipped and advanced.

Tools and technologies

are extremely important.

But it’s really the people on the ground

as well as having strong laws

that will really make and create

the effective change.

There’s no silver bullet in this fight,

but thanks to its singular qualities,

the giant rats prove

they’re more than just pests.

They could be great allies

against the illegal wildlife trade.