Reseachers Training ‘Hero Rats’ to Locate Earthquake Survivors
upstart writes:
Reseachers training 'hero rats' to locate earthquake survivors - National:
When Donna Kean moved from Scotland to Tanzania, she had more than just the culture shock to deal with.
[...] "With the rats, I was very surprised at just how intelligent they are and how trainable and how quickly they can learn, it was amazing."
For the past year she has been working with the NGO APOPO, training rats to become invaluable members of earthquake search and rescue teams.
[...] The rats will wear a special little backpack containing a camera, a location transmitter and a two-way radio, allowing rescuers to communicate with the person who is trapped.
Rats are trained to activate a switch on their backpack when they find a person in the rubble, transmitting a precise location back to rescuers.
[...] Researchers at APOPO have taken into account that injured and traumatized earthquake survivors may not exactly welcome a rat scratching around beside them.
"One thing that we've been considering is that [the rats] might play a message like an audio recording that says something like, 'I am a rescue rat, I'm well trained. I'm here to help you,'" said Kean.
"Something along those lines, we'll think of the ideal message to put people at ease."
[...] Kean says the rats would not put any rescue dogs out of work, but would complement human and canine teams.
Rats. Why does it have to be rats?
Related:
After Years Of Detecting Land Mines, A Heroic Rat is Hanging Up His Sniffer
Rats Taught to Drive Tiny Cars
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