An African giant has trained rats to sniff out the illegal wildlife trade

Although giant rats may be the nightmares of many people, these giant rodents can be a major weapon in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade.

Giant African bagged rats can be trained to sniff out traded wildlife products, from rhino horns and ivory to pangolin scales and African blackwood, according to a new paper in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science.

These cunning rats have particularly sharp noses, having been trained to detect landmines and tuberculosis-causing bacteria.

“Our research shows that we can train African giant rats to detect illegal wildlife, even when they are hidden among other things,” said co-author Isabelle Szott, a researcher at the Okeanos Foundation.

In the paper, the researchers describe how they trained 8 groups of 11 rats—named Kirsty, Marty, Attenborough, Irwin, Betty, Teddy, Ivory, Ebony, Desmond, Thoreau and Fossey—to successfully recognize these objects. .

“Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) is one of the largest criminal economies in the world, threatening species and their habitats, biodiversity, and indirectly the global climate, and the economies of countries,” the researchers wrote in the paper.

Through the Tanzanian non-profit organization APOPO, the researchers first introduced mice to the smell of pangolin scales, one of the world’s most traded animals.

Rats were trained to poke their noses into a hole containing an object, and were rewarded for nose pokes when a scent was present.

The rats were then introduced to fake odors including coffee beans, washing powder and electrical wires, which are often used by traffickers to mask the smell of illegal goods.

“During discrimination, rats learn to only point to the scent of wild animals, while ignoring unsuspecting prey,” Szott said.

Even months after being trained with a specific odor, the rats were still able to remember the odor to the same extent as the dogs.

“Rats also improved their recognition of wildlife targets after long periods of non-contact with those species,” said co-author Kate Webb, an assistant professor at Duke University. .

According to the paper, 8 out of 11 mice were able to identify pangolin scales, ivory, rhinoceros horn and African blackwood among 146 non-essential items.

The ability of these rats to smell delicious wildlife among other scents means they can be an invaluable asset in the fight against theft and trafficking.

The World Wildlife Crime Report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found earlier this year that “total wildlife trafficking has not decreased significantly in two decades,” and species about 4,000 are officially sold between 2015 and 2021.

Of these species, 3,250 are listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

“Wildlife trafficking is often done by people doing other illegal activities, which include people, drugs and weapons. Therefore, sending rats to fight wildlife trafficking can help in the world war against networks that exploit people and nature,” said Webb.

Rats can be very useful for finding tight spaces and are easy and economical to train and build.

“Existing inspection equipment is expensive and time-consuming and there is an urgent need to increase inventory inspection. APOPO rats are expensive odor detection equipment. They can easy access to tight spaces such as cargo in packed containers or being lifted up to inspect the air system of sealed containers,” said Szott.

These studies do not fully represent the conditions they would be testing wildlife properties in real life, however, so they may not be successful in real life.

The researchers hope to further train the rats to use the familiar pods when sniffing out illegal goods, with a small ball that they will pull to alert their keepers when they smell the scent.

“Clothing is a good example of how to develop a tool that can be useful in a variety of situations and activities, including on a cruise ship to spot wildlife in captivity,” Webb said.

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References

Szott, ID, Webb, EK, Mshana, S., Mshigeni, A., Magesa, WS, Iyungu, A., Saidi, M., Schneider, M., Dore, A., Brebner, K., Cox, C ., & Fast, CD (2024). Sculpting wildlife crime: Training African giant mice to spot illegally traded wildlife. Frontiers in Conservation Science, 5, 1444126. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcosc.2024.1444126