Word: mkumbo
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...when researchers from the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro, Tanzania, began training rats - known for their keen sense of smell - for the job, the Mozambicans were willing to give it a try. "Rats are intelligent, and they like to learn new things," says Jared Mkumbo, a Tanzanian who supervises the training of the rats and their handlers. "You can train them to do exactly what you want them to do." The project, run by an organization called Apopo, which is funded by the Flemish government in Belgium, is proving so effective that a new batch of mine-sniffing rats...
...Rats are almost perfectly suited for this type of work, argues Mkumbo. They are easy to train and transport to clearance sites, cheap to feed, and resistant to many of the tropical diseases to which dogs succumb. In the field, they are quick and methodical. Thirty-six rats trained in Tanzania are working on the project so far, and have already cleared thousands of mines across the country. "Two rats can clear a 200-square-meter area in one hour," says Mkumbo. "It takes one [human] de-miner two weeks to do the same area." And all that the rats...
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