<
https://edition.cnn.com/science/giant-african-rat-wildlife-traffickers-spc/>
"While the jury is still out on whether or not the African giant pouched rat is
cute, it’s harder to deny the impressive power of its nose.
Tanzania-based non-profit APOPO has already demonstrated the ability of the
cat-sized rodents, which it calls “HeroRATs,” to sniff out landmines,
tuberculosis, and even survivors among rubble in natural disaster zones.
But now the organization is turning its attention (and its rats’ noses) to the
global illegal wildlife trade.
Estimated to be worth up to $23 billion per year, illicit wildlife trafficking
is the fourth largest illegal trade industry worldwide – following counterfeit
products, drugs and humans.
“Wildlife is deemed to be a low-risk commodity,” says Crawford Allan, vice
president of nature crimes and policy advocacy at the WWF US, who has over 30
years’ experience working on wildlife crime. “Unfortunately, organized crime
knows there’s a real weak spot in detection methods of ports, seaports and
airports, particularly in Africa.”
Traffickers disguise wildlife products in a whole host of ways, he explains.
Ivory, for example, might be stained to look like wood, hidden within crop
shipments and even cut up into chocolate bar-shaped pieces, coated in chocolate
and wrapped up in the packaging – all in an attempt slip past visual and X-ray
inspections.
This is where the rats and their acute sense of smell come in. According to new
research led by APOPO and published in
Frontiers in Conservation Science, the
rats have been successfully trained in a research facility to sniff out
elephant tusks, rhino horns, pangolin scales and African blackwood – which
Allan, who’s not involved in the research, says are some of the most common
wildlife products to be trafficked out of Africa."
Via
What Could Go Right? Don’t Freak Out. Show Up.
https://theprogressnetwork.org/2024-us-elections/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
