These Giant Rats Save Lives and May Soon Stop Poachers

(Originally aired July 2, 2018) Guest: Kate Sears-Webb, Behavioral Research Technician, APOPO APOPO is a global non-profit organization based in Tanzania that has pioneered the training-rats-to-save-lives thing. Their African pouched rats have cleared more than 100,000 landmines from former war zones and can screen mucus samples for tuberculosis way, way faster than traditional methods. Now the rats are being grained to find illegally trafficked African hardwoods and pangolins, which are scaly anteaters.