APOPO, a Belgian NGO headquartered in Morogoro, Tanzania, trains African giant pouched rats, Cricetomys ansorgei, for scent detection purposes. Over the past 25 years, APOPO has successfully deployed rats in former conflict zones to use their incredible sense of smell for the detection of landmines and other explosives. In addition, these ‘HeroRATs’ also help detect tuberculosis in patient samples. Building on this knowledge, our solution is to train HeroRATs to detect illegally trafficked wildlife in shipping containers and other applicable environments.
![Training African giant pouched rats to detect illegally trafficked wildlife Training African giant pouched rats to detect illegally trafficked wildlife](https://gsapskills.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/cat_1937_rd_wildlife_detection_1-1024x683.jpg)