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Trained Rats Map Minefields With GPS

Posted by samzenpus on from the all-explosions-great-and-small dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Believe it or not, but the Department of Defense is paying psychologists to train rats to find mines and circle around them. By attaching little GPS backpacks and supplying a laptop with software that looks for the 'circling around' signature, the DOD hopes its project will allow the release of platoons of rats near suspected minefields so that the laptop software creates a detailed map of where all the mines are located automatically. Not sure if they plan on picking up the rats afterward, but they do assure us that the rats are too lightweight to set off the mines!"

3 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Don't need the DoD, already being done by OnceWas · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's not crazy, and it's already being done, by organization like HeroRATs - http://www.apopo.org/cms.php?cmsid=107. They train African giant pouched rats to detect mines. They're also using them to detect tuberculosis, in human spit. Yuck, but way cool.

    --
    Laugh while you can, monkey-boy.
  2. Nothing New by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nothing new They've been using rats for landmine detection in Africa for quite some time now.

    --
    Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
  3. Re:Those poor rats by hedgemage · · Score: 3, Informative

    Using animals to do the dangerous work of finding mines is INHUMANE! I suggest we do what most war-torn developing countries do and let children find them.
    (this is the troll post that guarantees me a ticket to hell, isn't it?)