The Incredible Life of the Mine-Sniffing Rat

Let me tell you the story of Magawa, the southern giant pouched rat that saved countless people in Cambodia.

Video and Imagery supplied by Getty Images

[autymarie]

Saw the community post, sorry the algorithm did this one dirty. Leaving a comment to support engagement. I had no idea mine-sniffing giant rats were a thing!

[VeeLazer]

I'm glad you asked about this in the community tab, never got a noti about this but mine-sniffing rats are indeed fascinating.

[RiseOfTheKumquat]

It was probably a good call to skip over Magawa's ketamine addiction and post-retirement podcasting career

[juliajohnson]

“He retired to a life of snacking on bananas and peanuts.”
Now that’s a retirement I’d like myself

[Andrea-xsny]

Austin, thank you for highlighting these intelligent, brave little souls. I'm a teacher and teach a unit on HeroRATS. It's such a delight to learn about the work apopo and the rats are doing. They're even training rats to sniff out tuberculosis. You can even "adopt" one of their rats, which helps fund the work they do. In case anyone is wondering, no rat has ever died sniffing out mines. 🐀🐀

[starlingeyed]

This is amazing—I’m so glad that Apopo exists. They’re doing work that’s so needed.

Rest easy, Magawa.

[Gldtr]

Are developing an animal super team now? You have spy bird and now rat raised to be a hero 👀

[supermroz]

Thanks for asking about this in the community post, I never saw it and it was a nice watch. I enjoy when people recognize and appreciate the talents different animals have, and treat them with respect.

[O.V.]

I'm glad you made a community past about this! I love this

[zorakzokstone]

As always, your mini-docs are a huge delight. I've owned many rats over the years, and am glad there's an ambassador like Magawa that we are able to share stories about in order to break down the stigma surrounding them. They're so smart, funny and curious; a beautiful species.

[luker]

Magawa you absolute legend. Rest in peace beautiful little friend.

[hey_bucklebob]

Thanks for highlighting this one. Totally missed it!

[antoinepetrov]

This is the type of videos I like the most on this channel. I love that Austin has returned to his older style of videos

[mracin]

Here to correct the errors of the algorithm! Great vid Austin! The yellow profile strolling around was awesome and the music was great!

[cybershockedm]

Here because of the post. Good video, these deserve 10x the attention at the least.

[edensmith]

As a former rat owner I had heard about rats trained to sniff out mines, and proudly brought out this fact to defend the smart critters, but I didn’t really know the details, and Magawa’s story made it so much better 😃

[BazukinBelyugovich]

That's really cool how Magawa the rat actually helped instruct other rats on how to detect landmines after retirement. Rats can be incredible creatures, clearly.

[MajiggerRose]

Thank you for posting about this in your community tab! I needed this story today and am tearing up. I love the animations and think it's great!

[thelanavishnuorchestra]

We passed upon the stair
We squeeked of was and when
Although I wasn't there
He said I was rodent
Which came as no surprise
I squeaked into his eyes
"I thought you died, blown up
A long, long time ago"

Oh no, not me
I never lost control
You're nose to nose
With the rat who sold the world.

[richardmillhousenixon]

I don't know why this didn't show up on my feed, I 100% would have watched it