A team of scientists based in Tanzania have been training rats to solve all sorts of problems, including finding people trapped in their homes after a natural disaster.
研究人员已成功培训大鼠检测地雷, sniff out tuberculosis and evendrive cars，但是他们的下一个挑战 - 在倒塌的建筑物中找到幸存者 - 可能是他们最勇敢的。我们与博士交谈唐娜·基恩（Donna Kean），Apopo的行为研究人员，该组织处于训练大鼠的最前沿，以挽救生命。
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为什么老鼠?
They can contribute something that the other technologies can't, at least for the areas we train them in. Their sense of smell and their trainability is on a par with dogs'. But it’s the rats’ small size that really makes a difference.
在Apopo，我们与非洲巨人袋鼠合作[Cricetomys ansorgei]. We taught the rats to detect landmines, because they're too small, too light, to set off a landmine. We’re teaching them to detect the scent of illegally smuggled wildlife in shipping ports, because they can reach the containers stacked up high on top one another.
For my research training rats for search and rescue, the main reason is that they can get into the small, tight areas of a debris site. Search and rescue dogs typically just go around debris sites, whereas we're hoping the rats can actually go inside, through all the rubble, because they're so small.
Any application has to be in response to a humanitarian challenge, and it has to need the unique capabilities of our rats to help. If there's already [other] technology available, and it's affordable, we're not going to train our rats just for the fun of it.
[Training] starts off in a really basic environment: a small, empty room. Then we gradually expand and increase the complexity so it because more like real life. We can start adding in debris and making the training area look more like an actual collapsed building site.
They need to trigger a switch, which makes a noise. Currently, we put them in a vest that has a little ball on its collar, containing a microswitch. The rats are trained to pull the ball when they find someone, which triggers the microswitch and lets out a beep.
Of course, in the field we won't be able to see the rats, or hear them. So, we’re working with a group of engineers to develop a multi-function backpack that will be linked up to our computer, so we can be notified when the rats pull the ball. We’ll be able to know exactly where they are, because the backpacks should have a location transmitter, as well.
How can they tell the difference between those who are alive and those who aren’t?
We’ve talked about this a lot, because we will only do the training with live people and don't know how they'll react to dead bodies until they're in a real scenario. However, dog trainers have told us that the odour profile of a person that's alive, compared to a person that's dead, is very different. Dogs can tell the difference between a living and deceased person from around three to four hours after death.
我们刚刚从2021年8月开始培训，我们仍然必须在研究环境之外进行培训试验。我们正在与一个名为的搜救小组合作GEA, who are based in Turkey, a country prone to earthquakes. We’re hoping that by next year we’ll be able to take the rats to Turkey for trials there, but in terms of going to real disaster sites, real collapsed buildings... it’s very, very difficult to tell.
APOPO’s landmine research started in 1998, and its first operational trials ran in 2003 and 2004. Our tuberculosis detection research began in 2003, and the rats began operating in 2007. For these projects it costs, on average, around €6,000 [roughly £5,175] to fully train one rat so they’re ready for operations.
Amy is the Editorial Assistant at BBC Science Focus. Her BA degree specialised in science publishing and she has been working as a journalist since graduating in 2018. In 2020, Amy was named Editorial Assistant of the Year by the British Society of Magazine Editors. She looks after all things books, culture and media. Her interests range from natural history and wildlife, to women in STEM and accessibility tech.
