Rats to the Rescue!

An organization called APOPO has been working with African giant pouched rats for 25 years. It has already trained these rodents to sniff out bombs and deadly illnesses. 

Now APOPO is teaching the rats to help rescue survivors of disasters. That might surprise you. After all, many rats eat garbage and spread diseases. 

But rats are also very smart. They are as easy to train as dogs. They have a great sense of smell. That means they’re good at finding what they’ve been trained to find. 

Plus, they’re small. They can climb through rubble and into tight places that dogs or people can’t reach. 

Training a rat for search and rescue is a lot like training a dog. It’s all about giving rewards when the animal finishes tasks. 

First, a rat learns to run to its trainer when it hears a beep. That earns it a treat—rat food mixed with banana and avocado. Ew!

Next, the rat learns to pull a bell on its backpack once it finds a survivor. In a real rescue situation, pulling the bell will send a location signal to human rescuers. At that point, they can track the survivor’s location. How? The rat’s backpack has a GPS tracker. 

The backpack might also have a microphone and speaker. This would allow the rescuers to hear and talk to the survivor.

So far, the new training of the rats has been a success. Donna Kean runs this project at APOPO. 

“Rats are curious and like to explore,” Kean explains. “That’s key for search and rescue.” 

Most of the rats she’s worked with have learned their tasks quickly.

If you’re ever in need of rescue, look out for a tiny hero with a backpack. That little rat might just save your life!

1. What is the main idea of the section “Rats Have Talent”?
2. How is training a rat for search and rescue like training a dog?
3. What clues in the article help you know what a GPS tracker is?