Magawa, an African rat, won a gold medal on September 7th from PDSA, a British animal charity, for its courage. The animal has spent the past five years identifying explosive mines in Cambodia. Landmines have existed since the 1970s and have already caused many accidents in Cambodia. The rat’s activity is important for specialists to disable the landmines. The rat sniffed out 39 mines and 28 items of unexploded ammunition.

Magawa was trained for the job and learned to recognize the chemical compounds in the explosives. When it sensed them, it would scratch the ground as a warning. Rats are trained to sniff out mines because, aside from other reasons, they are the ideal size: they are light and would not cause the explosives to explode on contact but are also large enough to wear collars and be accompanied.

Sources: G1, Indian Express, and PDSA

Questions

1) How did Magawa detect the mines?

a) Sniffing for metals
b) Recognizing the chemical compounds
c) He knew they smelled like bananas and peanuts.
d) Through a metal detector attached to its collar

2) What do you think about training animals for this type of activity?

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