Fred de Sam Lazaro:
Rats have a number of advantages compared to human de-miners, who must rely on metal detectors. They detect a lot of scrap metal. These are, after all, old battlefields. They are litter, but they don't always contain explosives, whereas these guys are trained to sniff out TNT, which is the explosive in most mines.
Since 2016, APOPO's hero rats have found roughly 500 anti-personnel mines and more than 350 unexploded bombs in Cambodia. They're the second animal to be deployed in mine clearance. Dogs were first. Animals can work much faster than humans, although, when the land is densely mined, metal detectors are considered more efficient.
Thuch Ly who leads the government's de-mining effort, says there's plenty of work to go around. The ministry has exhaustive maps of areas it calls contaminated.
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