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Boom *doesn't* go the rat. In Tanzania, giant African pouched rats are trained to detect hidden landmines -- becoming some of humanity's most unlikely heroes.
Apr 7, 2026 6:36 PM
60SecondDocs
601118
808
9
Boom *doesn't* go the rat. In Tanzania, giant African pouched rats are trained to detect hidden landmines -- becoming some of humanity's most unlikely heroes.
cousteau
Holy shit, at the beginning they make it look like the rat is making the mine go off. If I didn't already know that's not how it works I would've been upset. (at least until they get to the part about the mines not exploding on the rats).
lostkittenmk3
https://media3.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1MWJkanptYTB3MHp6MGgwYWR2MGRiMmljbHRkanYzOWprdjQ5ZHNrOSZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/vXLLbJs2NIUZuZ9DSS/200w.webp
GeminiDreams
I swore that was a rat being blown up. Glad to see I was wrong.
TheFastpaws
It is disgusting how many countries deploy mines and then just fuck off leaving people to die long after the war.
fancyass
Fun fact: you can virtually adopt one of the rats to help raise money for their cause
circlebreaker
+1 for Explosive Ordinance Disposal rattos.
BaWitda
This was one of the first charities I donated to as an adult.
merrowcattech
Thanks for sharing that.
JokerFrown
I love that some of them look pretty fat XD
OmNachoMama
I think I'd like to migrate to Africa to help train rats to do this. It would be more meaningful than my good paying corporate job. I just need to be able to bring my dog since I won't leave him behind.
UncleRat
That's cool, but can they paint?
wadatahmydamie
They can perform acts of sorcery if you get ‘em back in human form first
mikeatike
I dont have sound on, but that sudden cut from a rat standing on a landmine to an explosion....
SuperfluousMeh
I love rats. I didn't even really hate the ones that got into our house. RIP.
Mice though? Fuck those critters. They're trying to eat you!
Snooj
That is a really unfortunate edit going from a rat on a mine directly to a wide view of an explosion.
iWouldWhack500moles
9 months of training is a huge amount when you only live for five to eight years. kudos, ratboys and ratgirls.
theinternetkeepsmealive
Its more than cops in the USA have to do.
cousteau
Yeah, it's an entire degree, master, and PhD in human years.
SteveD31415
Some years ago they redid the sewers at my former house and we had rats invade our garage. Of course I had to set out traps, but I could see why people keep them as pets. I felt bad about killing them but I couldn't just turn rats loose in the neighborhood. They were not at all the filthy creatures we imagine.
bamblebimble
They're so goddamn cute, same with mice. I feel horrible using any kind of traps on mice or rats, but I also know there isn't really a good way to go about doing it. Live traps are ok until you realize that they won't survive wherever you release them. And youve got to release them very far away from your home.
Not to mention that you have to remember to check the live traps so they dont starve to death
Dapashun81
It's official; Rats reduce human suffering more than Conservatives do.
AllegedlyTonyDutch
The way this is edited it still looks like they've blown up the rat
upvt
they have
cousteau
Yeah, come on, that has to be engagement bait.
Humputse
They haven't lost any rats because they know exactly where they went.
sqrlirl
Everywhere
OtisTDrunk
Ala-Rat-Bar
somerandomhooman
They have a museum in Cambodia for the ones they use there: https://apopo.org/support-us/apopo-visitor-center/?v=ac5585d98646
Land mines are absolutely abhorrent! The fucks who place them never keep track of where they actually are. These are lethal weapons lost and left to kill future generations and innocent people.
FuManLu
Cambodia. Look it up. Still having mouse clear landmines to this very day. No one cleans up their shit after their stupid wars WE, the citizens have to figure out how to train animals? disgusting!!!
xj4low
The farmlands in Ukraine are criss-crossed with fiber optic strands. Other warzones are coverd in Butterfly mines, also known as PFM-1 mines. They are a type of anti-personnel landmine that can be scattered from aircraft and are designed to explode upon contact. They are often criticized for their resemblance to toys, which poses a danger to children and civilians.
circlebreaker
I've had this photo of a forest Ranger from Burma saved for almost 20 years, since the first time that I heard about it. Absolutely insane the longevity of land mines.
FuManLu
I spent some time in Cambodia and helped with this.
truly saddening . The war machine keeps going... we have to pick up the mess. Truly saddening.
Twinklepot
Magawa has a statue in his honour now! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magawa
mikeatike
Omg that tiny medal
Twinklepot
He is a total hero!
CitrusyGarlic
How do you work in a factory that produces landmines and still have the ability to sleep at night?
Urgalicity
With all the OSHA violations in military mfg, probably almost as well as the people who are forced to place the mines.
rbudrick
Poverty. Poverty is the biggest exploit in the history of exploits. It is THE exploit. They want you kept stupid, sick, poor, desperate, and preferably, pregnant. Keeping people this way has been extremely profitable and comfortable for the rich sonce history was invented. And we keep falling for it.
MrStealYourGiF
Careful, there was some chick who was against landmines and they just snuffed her out in a tunnel. /s
Zooperfalcon
You're not wrong...
CertifiedBonerDonor
Not drinking coffee after 5
Niagaran
How do you join a military with a long history of war crimes and a very recent history of war criming 165 little girls and the EMTs that came to help them?
obie5778
Like a vampire, just work third shift and don't sleep at night
deletable
Are they in places with a bunch of high paying options or are they located to intentionally trap people who are close and have no options?
livingonagiantfireball
My cousin work in quebec canada and make artillery shell, and various size of ammunition, i asked him, he only see it as a job like making bolts.
Mikaru86
Probably depends who those mines are for. I imagine a ukrainian factory worker will sleep quite well (if he isn't awoken by the air raid sirens) knowing that the mines will help prevent Russia taking another village to rape and murder his fellow citizens.
xxPaulCPxx
THIS! Plus alot of the "mines" are cluster munitions that didn't explode, which is a separate issue.
These days, drones are taking over for mines, or laying a mine just in front of a moving vehicle.
Rhythmaster
Did you know? The USA has been deploying landmines in Iran, near residential areas. Americans' tax dollars at work. I'm not really sure any of our hands are clean, anyone who lives in a western country is at least SOMEWHAT complicit in these things. We could honestly look at any industry, for example the chocolate slavery, and north american consumers just bought shit loads of chocolate for easter... westerners high quality of life is dependent on horrific things happening overseas. I'm sure the
Rhythmaster
People in the factory assembly line screwing the bolts on the landmines don't really think about the consequences overseas, they are thinking about how they need this job to feed their family, or simply thinking "screw 1a goes into slot 1b". That's how the system got this way, we don't think about how what we're doing will affect other people in other countries, we think mostly about our own day to day life and the people closest to us. It's been designed to separate and hide the effects from us
Grinch01
Just fyi most countrys have then banned long ago(over 20years) the only Nato country that still builds them are the usa... some countrys have way more blood on their hands then the rest and by some you know who i mean...
CitrusyGarlic
This was SUPPOSED to be a rhetorical question, every single one of you claiming that all poor people throw away their morals and happily work in the child-leg-removing-factory don't know what the hell you're talking about. You can always find examples of extremely poor people who put their morality before their hungry stomachs.
dghughes
Probably by sleeping in a house surrounded by landmines.
hotrodny
Being republican is a prerequisite
Grinch01
Anti Person mines are forbidden for most countrys, not the usa, russia and china... that speaks for it self in my opinion. the ones working there are not the once that deploy them in rural areas so generations have to live in fear of mines.
anarchoFeline
at least in the US probably no one is doing that. the US stopped using mines in the 90s outside the DMZ and stopped "producing or acquiring" them in 2014. Trump allowed them to be used anywhere in 2020 but did limit how many the US would keep in hand. so it's pretty likely that in the US we just aren't making them anymore. i was a marine in the early 00s and i didn't think i ever saw one or heard any stories from anyone about anything that mentioned them.
Rhythmaster
NYT reported that USA military was deploying landmines in Iran near residential areas. And Biden sent landmines to Ukraine to use in the war there a couple years ago. Many nations have signed an agreement not to use landmines, but of course the USA has not. Even if they were manufactured elsewhere or previously, they're being used, today, which is beyond fucked up.
FrancsTireur
The US has roughly 3 million anti personnel mines in its inventory, the majority of which were made in the 80s and 90s, due to the way in which they were made its likely that most of these will have to be disposed of by 2030. However they also have 7.5 million anti vehicle mines and those are of varying vintage.
fewmenchew
I think they take it 1 step at a time...
Hurtmeplenty69
BADA BOOM!
PineappleLoopsBroether
Sound on volume up
waitwhut
BeragondGreatstride
I imagine they compartmentalize. Or they tell themselves that the weapons they make will only be used by the good guys. Or they say it’s just a job, not their fault. Or any of a thousand other comforting lies.
Isthe4thtimethecharm
I imagine they are thankful they could feed their family and have a roof over their heads.
CitrusyGarlic
Good guys don't employ landmines
wadatahmydamie
I like how you responded this way to someone who basically agrees with you
CitrusyGarlic
What way was that?
TurnsOut42WasASlightMiscalculation
If that's a defining element for you, I suspect there are actually very few good guys to you. They are used by both sides in wars
Something1Said
A lot of the world has signed treaties banning the use of landmines. Some countries are, at the very least, making that extremely token effort to be "the good guys". Save the "both sides" stuff, landmines are evil every single time we use them and people who choose landmines over other, better solutions are monstrous without exception.
ignasPuppySmuggler
What better solutions? Imagine you are a small Baltic country preparing for a Russian invasion and the largest NATO country had indicated that they don't give a shit. What weapons (mines, cluster munitions, autonomous drones) would you so graciously not use? Would you just fold over and hope another Bucha or mass exile to Siberia does not happen? Would you rather give up 5% of your country to mines, or 100% to the invaders?
funone77
How do you live in the richest nation in the world while people in your own country go hungry, homeless, and without medical care? Its all varying degrees of self loath from there on.
How does one work in the software industry while the technology is used to help genocide other entire civilizations?
The list of ok paying jobs that dont contribute to the shit show right now is very short.
MrBigBuns
or as my systems theory prof. said: "there's nothing good in a shit system."
FelonyRaptor
As a sound tech I sometimes feel pretty good about my job. Not that I can make a living doing it.
BeckyLookAtHerButt
"Clippy" is only trying to help.
azazyel
The US also wont sign the treaty to ban landmines. We love them too much.
SergeyPrkl
Well, the countries by russian border, all have got rid of that stupid treaty. We need them more than ever. Because the russians don't ask if they are welcome. they come, murder and steal.
Neanderthalersutopiaphilandrousanteatersotherbrother
You see land and immediately think: mine
FrenziiTheSuccubus
It describes americans so well
CitrusyGarlic
I donate to and help the homeless, that's how. I'm doubting that the person who works in the landmine factory ever donates any money to the de-mining organizations
JT1984
Theyre probably getting paid 13 cents an hour and feeding theyre family one meal a day. But please lets do shame the poor and desperate from our high horse in a glass house.
CitrusyGarlic
This is such a disgustingly privileged idea, that all poor people have no sense of how horrible it would be to work in place where the fruits of your labor routinely hurt and kill innocents. That no poor people ever make the decision to not work in that kind of horrible place, that every single poor person sets aside their morals. This has never been the case, read a fucking book about the matter for once in your life
Something1Said
I don't think landmine assembly is white collar work. Dangerous jobs like that are generally left to the poors, and we don't compensate them enough to afford charitable donations AND life.
CitrusyGarlic
And? I don't do white collar work, in my field people routinely lose fingers and have all sorts of horrible accidents, but we also take pride in the fact that what we do builds and adds to the world. What you all fail to realize is that there are poor people with moral standards who make the choice to not work at the places that are factories of death
Something1Said
What you fail to realize is that not all people are free or privileged enough to turn down paying work because of moral obligations. The point I'm making is that privilege has given you a high horse from which you look down on people who aren't free.