Giant rat wins UK hero award for sniffing out landmines

LONDON — A rat has for the first time won a British charity's top civilian award for animal bravery, receiving the honor for searching out unexploded landmines in Cambodia.

Magawa, a giant African pouched rat, was awarded the PDSA's Gold Medal for his "lifesaving bravery and devotion" after discovering 39 landmines and 28 items of unexploded ordinance in the past seven years, according to the PDSA, or People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, based in the United Kingdom.

Magawa was trained by a Belgian organization that has taught rats to find landmines for more than 20 years. The group, APOPO, works with programs in Cambodia, Angola, Zimbabwe and Mozambique to clear millions of mines left behind from wars and conflicts.

Magawa is the group's most successful rat, having cleared more than 141,000 square meters of land, the equivalent of some 20 soccer fields.

More than 60 million people in 59 countries continue to be threatened by landmines and unexploded ordinance, according to APOPO.

While many rodents can be trained to detect scents and will work at repetitive tasks for food rewards, APOPO decided that giant African pouched rats were best suited to landmine clearance because of their African origins and lifespan of up to eight years. Their size allows the rats to walk across mine fields without triggering the explosives and do it much more quickly than people.

The PDSA's Gold Medal has been awarded since 2002 to recognize bravery and acts of exceptional devotion by animals in civilian service. Before Magawa, all the recipients were dogs.

Check out more photos of Magawa here: