Rats show off their ability to help humans
Rats are seen in a street of New York, United States on October 19, 2022. New government statistics show that there have been 71% more reports of rat sightings in the city overall since this time in 2020. There were almost 21,000 reports by the end o
As an ambassador for rats, it’s never easy to win over the public. There’s that hairless tail after all.
But Runa (the rat) at the San Diego Zoo is doing her best to counter the bad press. She is one of a handful of such so-called ambassadors showing off the virtues of rats at three U.S. zoos. The rats were provided by a Tanzania-based organization that is training African giant pouched rats to combat wildlife trafficking, detect diseases and perform other useful tasks.
At least twice the size of the common brown rats found in cities, African giant pouched rats like Runa are best known for ferreting out landmines and other explosive material on old battlefields in Angola, Mozambique and Cambodia, earning them the nickname "hero-rats." Efforts are underway to expand the use of their keen sense of smell to finding people trapped in collapsed buildings, detecting diseases in laboratory samples and alerting officials to illegal goods at ports and airports.
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Six African rats completed their first trial working in the field in March, spending a month at a port in Tanzania where they were tasked with detecting smuggled goods, including Pangolins. The scaly anteater is coveted by poachers and is among the most trafficked animals in the world. Its meat is considered a delicacy in Vietnam and some parts of China, and its scales are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Nicki Boyd, of the San Diego Zoo and Wildlife Alliance, said rats offer an important tool to combat wildlife trafficking, which the zoo wants to highlight since the illegal animal trade "is very destructive to the species that we are actively trying to save and protect in the wild."
"I do think there is the ability to scale this up," she said.
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But rats still have a ways to go in winning over everyone. Last week, New York Mayor Eric Adams introduced Kathleen Corradi, a former elementary school teacher and anti-rat activist, as his new "rat czar" whose job is to battle potentially millions of rats lurking about the city.
The city’s help-wanted ad for the post stated it was seeking applicants who are "bloodthirsty," possess "killer instincts" and could commit to the "wholesale slaughter" of rats. At her first news conference in her job, Corradi, standing next to Adams, stated her hatred of rats and vowed to use "science" to rid the city of them.
New York City’s common brown rats share the same traits, but their shorter lifespan makes them unlikely candidates for such trainings, Szott said. African rats can live up to a decade whereas small brown rats only live for a few years.
"We think they make great zoo additions," she said of the African rats, adding that the ambassadors will broaden people’s understanding of "just how smart they are and how we can co-exist with them."
Associated Press wire services helped contribute to this report.