APOPO, Siem Reap, Cambodia

After a solemn start to the morning we decided on something that had a more positive light. It was another depressing start though, learning about the various different bombs which are still found within Cambodia and the amount of people affected by them but great to then see a very clever way of finding the bombs using African giant pouch rats.

The clever animals can be taught to identify a miniscule amount of TNT within a one meter radius of them, and also a meter underground, so they can clear an area of a tennis court in around 30 minutes.

We got a demonstration and a chance to hold one too, which was great!

The company currently has 53 rats in Cambodia, with more being used in 10 other countries to find bombs and also tuberculosis.Read more