ANIMALROUND-UP

HERO RAT

Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, has been awarded a gold medal for “life-saving devotion to duty” by UK animal charity People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA). The PDSA Gold Medal was initiated in 2002 to honour and reward significant acts of courage and devotion to duty by animals, the highest honour recognising extraordinary animal bravery.

Magawa is a mine-detecting rat. He was trained by the Belgium-registered charity APOPO who have been teaching rats to detect landmines since the early 1990s. There are an estimated 80 million landmines still active and unknown across the world. The African Giant Pouched Rat is much larger than standard-sized pet rats, but is still light enough to be able to walk over a landmine without setting it off. Magawa and