By Free Republic | Created at 2024-10-30 18:50:53 | Updated at 2024-10-31 11:18:54
16 hours ago
Vest-wearing giant rats could be smugglers' worst nightmare
New Atlas ^ | October 30, 2024 | Michael Franco
Posted on 10/30/2024 11:19:42 AM PDT by Red Badger
The rats will be trained to operate a vest that emits a sound when a ball attached to a cord is pulledAPOPO
Most of us are familiar with the vest-clad beagle that hunts for illegal fruits and plants in the travelers' luggage at airports. Now, a species of giant pouched rat has been trained to fulfill a similar role in finding illegal wildlife products.
The rodents who underwent the training are African giant pouched rats and, despite their somewhat terrifying name, really only grow to be about 750 mm (about 2.5 ft) long from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail, with the tail taking up about half that length. While that's indeed big for a rat, it makes the animal small enough that it could wander among tightly packed crates in shipping containers to combat illegally smuggled products.
In a new study, 11 of the rats – with names including Attenborough, Fossey, and Thoreau – were first trained to stick their noses through a hole in their enclosure to receive a treat. Then, the rats were exposed to both non-triggering scents and those of commonly smuggled illegal wildlife products and trained to distinguish between the two. The non-triggering scents included electric cables, detergent, and coffee beans, which are all used to hide the scent of illegal animal products by smugglers. The triggering scents included pangolin scales, elephant ivory, rhino horn, and African blackwood, all of which are smuggled and all of which are considered in danger of extinction.
After learning to identify the illegal wildlife products, the researchers gave the rats a break and found that the animals were still able to identify them correctly up to eight months later ...
(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...
TOPICS: Military/Veterans; Outdoors; Pets/Animals; Society
KEYWORDS:
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1 posted on 10/30/2024 11:19:42 AM PDT by Red Badger
To: Red Badger
2 posted on 10/30/2024 11:20:28 AM PDT by Fido969
To: Red Badger
3 posted on 10/30/2024 11:22:02 AM PDT by Fido969
To: Red Badger
A rat ratted on me - no, I mean a real rat!
4 posted on 10/30/2024 11:22:53 AM PDT by proxy_user
To: Red Badger
What could possibly go wrong?
- Killer bees
- Fire ants
- Giant Hornets
- Giant Rats ...
5 posted on 10/30/2024 11:24:56 AM PDT by Governor Dinwiddie (O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is gracious, and His mercy endureth forever. — Psalm 106)
To: Red Badger
Its totally possible. I once saw a documentary about how rats were running a 3-star Michelin restaurant.
6 posted on 10/30/2024 11:36:08 AM PDT by PGR88
To: Red Badger
“Most of us are familiar with the vest-clad beagle that hunts for illegal fruits and plants in the travelers’ luggage at airports.”
I was watching a TV show on those beagles one evening.
The next day I went to work at the veterinary school and who was there?
Those very beagles I saw on TV.
There was a canine olfaction lab they were going to probably to get their sniffers calibrated.
7 posted on 10/30/2024 11:44:56 AM PDT by packagingguy
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