As an ambassador for rats, it’s never easy to win over the public
San Diego Zoo wildlife care specialist Lauren Credidio provides a treat to Runa, an African giant pouched rat, after she searched and found a pouch of chamomile tea during a presentation at the zoo Thursday, April 13, 2023, in San Diego. Runa weekly in demonstrations at the zoo to show how her keen sense of smell can be used to find everything from illegal shipments of wildlife to landmines. The organization that trained Runa has started providing the rats to U.S.
Six African rats completed their first trial working in the field in March, spending a month at a port in Tanzania where they were tasked with detecting smuggled goods, including Pangolins. The scaly anteater is coveted by poachers and is among the most trafficked animals in the world. Its meat is considered a delicacy in Vietnam and some parts of China, and its scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
On a recent day, her trainers hid small vessels of chamomile tea under the dirt in a box. As soon as she was released from her cage, Runa's tiny nose was abuzz with twitching as she set out to work. Within seconds she had found all the vessels, and was racing over to suck on a syringe filled with a pellet-and-banana smoothie.
Izzy Szott, a behavioral research scientist at the Tanzania-based organization APOPO, which is training the rats to work for governments, said she was not surprised to hear rats had been named enemy No. 1, but she wants people to know the full picture. Her hope is having ambassador rats at renowned zoos, like San Diego's, will lead to more understanding and support for rat research.
Szott said rats often “get a bad rap," but that it's important to “consider our responsibility towards the wildlife around us and that we share the planet with.” At their facility in Morogoro, Tanzania, Szott and the other researchers are also working on training the rats to someday aid in the detection of contaminated soil or help rescuers in finding people trapped under the rubble after earthquakes and explosions. The rats, which can be dispatched into hard-to-reach areas, have been outfitted with tiny vests with a pendant they can pull to send an alert to their handlers when they find a person.
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