As of September 8, 2008, it is once again legal to purchase, sell, and own Gambian Pouched Rats as pets in the United States. Gambians are the largest rats in the world, approximately the size of a house cat (weighing from three to nine pounds) and with a life expectancy of about eight years. Like all other rats, they are completely awesome. Imagine the kind of awesomeness obtainable from regular rats (see photo) and now imagine it…giant.
The rarely-observed "Hammock Double Nose Poke"
You're not sold yet? Well, they save a lot of lives. In Africa they are now widely used to detect landmines, which they do with 100% accuracy. They're better than metal detectors (Whoops!
Missed all the plastic mines.) and obviously more economical. They're easy to train, they never tire of the "game" of finding buried explosives, and, unlike sniffer dogs, they're too light to trip a mine. A single human and a metal detector can de-mine a 100 square yard area in about a week. A handler and a rat can do it in 20 minutes. If this seems like an obscure talent, outside of the comfy Western world landmines kill 60 people every day and cripple 200 more.
Yeah.
You're still not sold? They are being introduced into medical labs after trainers discovered that their noses can be used to detect diseases. Throughout Africa, tuberculosis still runs rampant. And a rat can be trained to respond to the smell.
If you're thinking, "But microscopic tuberculosis bacteria have no odor, silly" then you are obviously not a rat.
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A human using fairly expensive lab equipment (which, you know, Africa tends to lack) can test 50 samples for TB in about 48 hours. A rat can do 100 in 30 minutes. No mistakes.
Are you not on board yet? They can fuckin' smell tuberculosis. What does it take to impress you?
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Oh, how about this: they're being trained to smell cancer too.
You should check out this website from a non-profit group which trains these little balls of awesome to help resource-poor parts of Africa rid themselves of landmines strewn across the continent in seemingly endless conflicts and TB. A few bucks to help them out will probably save a couple kids from getting a leg blown off. And if you're really bored at work, check out the slideshow of how they're trained to de-mine. Pretty awesome.
Now excuse me, I have to find an exotic pet dealer.
Nan says:
I saw a news report on television some time back about the rats being used for detecting landmines. And I find it totally believable they can smell TB or other diseases and health conditions. I'm not a huge fan of rats, but have to admit they're remarkably intelligent rodents.
Heqit says:
Wow, that's awesome. I had no idea rats could smell frickin' diseases. Not to mention the landmines. What a briliant idea. (And yet, somehow, the idea of a nine-pound rat still gives me…pause.)
So, since you're such a big fan of rats, Ed, did you read The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents?
Kulkuri says:
I've seen reports on rats being used for mine detection.
Animals have a much greater sense of smell. If dogs can smell cancer, then rats smelling TB is very believable.
j says:
The female silkworm moth (Bombyx mori) can detect a single molecule of male pheromone and fly towards her potential mate. How can she tell where the smell is coming from, with only a single detection event? Simple: she flies upwind.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12664098?ordinalpos=2&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DefaultReportPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum
BK says:
Man I wish I could love rats. I can really appreciate the cool things they can do.
I even get that they've probably gotten a bad rap following the plague and the ability of rodents in Australia to eat 500,000 TONS of food a season…
And I even agreed to allowing my daughter to have a guinea pig (cavy, whatever) and actually enjoy letting the little fur ball gnaw on my fingers and round around the tiled portions of our house.
I also think Great White sharks are pretty awesome for their ability to swim really fast and smell a drop of blood in salt water from a mile away but don't want one for a pet…
Cassie says:
Rats are awesome. I think it's the naked tail that puts people off. It rats had furry tails I think they would be one of the popular pets in the country. They have the affection of dogs at the manageable size of cats. And are smarter than both.
David Recine says:
These were illegal? I always wanted to get oen but wasn't sure where to buy one. For humane reasons, I prefer to litter train my rats and let them have the run of the house, and these ones are big enough not to get stuck in a crack in the wall or drown in the toilet.
Are you going to litter trian yours Ed?
Christina says:
What they can do is really coolness itself.
Definitely out weights their inability to hold their bladders and so pee everywhere and all the time and the fact that they tend to carry Hanta virus in their urine.
But hey, no one is perfect.
Melinda says:
It's totally the tail, Cassie. If my cats had tails without fur, I probably wouldn't have bothered with them, and I love my cats. I'll admire from afar, though I want to meet your 9 pounder when you get one, and I'll feed your pet while you're out of town, Ed.