Monday, May 11, 2015

Victor, the HeroRat: Vanquisher of Land Mines, Chapter One


When Michael posted about rats who were sniffing out land mines in Africa, I went right to the Apopo website and adopted one.  It costs $8 per month, hardly a blip on my monthly credit card bill, and about the price of an upscale cappucino and a croissant in New York.  And what important work the little guy will do!

David and me in South Africa in 2003
 
I had been primed to do my little bit to help.  During my first trip to Africa in 2003, on a flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg, I met a young American woman who was on her way to a meeting.  She worked in Angola for a nonprofit devoted to ridding the country of land mines.  She told me that her organization had been endowed by Princess Diana Spencer and described great devastation to people and to animals from the mines.



The princess had gotten interested in the cause when, in 1997 (the year she died), the International Red Cross invited her to witness the tragic consequences and asked her to help publicize the problem.  Politicians in the UK publicly disapproved of Diana’s taking a position, which only made her and the rest of the sane world all the more determined to rid the planet of those indiscriminant killers.




My young American acquaintance told me that she had just taken some time off to visit game parks in South Africa, since—thanks to the millions of land mines left behind by a twenty-year civil war—there was almost no wildlife left in Angola.   Enchanted and enthralled as I was with the African wilderness at that moment, I found the idea too sad for words.  To say nothing of the unspeakable damage done to people—children and grownups—who had lost their lives to land mines.  The luckier ones lost only their limbs.  Horrifying.





I am proud that little Victor will do his bit to help.   From time to time I will post here about his progress.  For now, this is what I know about him, from an email I received last Monday:

Baby Victor is born!
The photo of the newborn that came with this message
Welcome to the world, Victor! It is celebration time in APOPO's rat kennels today for the birth of baby Victor and its two siblings. Victor belongs to the species Cricetomys gambianus, commonly known as the African giant pouched rat, which are often born in litters of 2 or 3. APOPO's breeding program ensures that prospective parents of our future heroes are carefully handpicked to deliver healthy, happy and high-quality rat babies.  A successful breeding program increases the likelihood of delivering excellent HeroRATs to detect landmines and tuberculosis.

APOPO's early experiences demonstrated that rats that grow up in the organization's kennels are easier to train and are more effective scent detectors. Since many rats are needed for mine action and TB detection operations, APOPO's research and development department is constantly working on ways to optimize the breeding program. Before placing rat couples in the breeding cages, the APOPO staff closely monitors the acceptance behavior of the animals in the introduction cage. Female rats either reject or accept a prospective mate in this cage and in cases of clear acceptance, the rat couples are placed together in the breeding cages.



Crucial information such as the best timing for the female rats and the fertility period of the male rats go a long way in improving the productivity of the breeding colony. APOPO's breeding program also ensures optimal care, feeding and medical attention to aid the overall welfare of the animals and subsequently improve the quality of rats available for training. 




I look forward to following Victor’s career.  I’ll keep you posted.

When the HeroRats are finished with their work in Africa, there are, sad to say, mines in Bosnia and Cambodia, and many other places around the globe for Victor and his brethren to tackle. 




Annamaria - Monday

18 comments:

  1. Wonderful, Annamaria! I am also looking forward to updates on Victor's progress!
    Michael.

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    1. Michael, without your post, I would have never known about this effort. Did you catch the fact that the rats can also detect tuberculosis? Evidently, they can sniff the sample and tell if the patient is diseased. Far easier than the typical skin test that takes days and requires healthcare professionals checking the patient's skin. One wonders what other skills our fellow creature have that we can use to do good.

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    2. I know that dogs are beginning to be used to smell the presence of breast cancer.

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    3. What good news, Stan. Many creatures hear, smell, and see things that we do not--as in broader light spectrums and sound frequencies which our senses can't read. Wouldn't it be great if we could respect them enough, or merely need them enough, not to destroy their habitats?

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  2. Indeed! There is a hyperspectral instrument designed to assist doctors diagnose skin cancers by analyzing light reflection in different wave lengths. But dogs have been shown to be sensitive to such a lesion and will try to lick it. Given that the rats have much better noses than dogs, I wonder if anyone has investigated that possibility. Although I guess it might be a hard ask of patients to allow rats to run around over their skins!

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    1. Perhaps they should stick with dogs, until Victor and his fellows give rats a better reputation,

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  3. I wonder if the day will ever come that big medicine will accept that progress may mean it's reigning rats and dogs.

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    1. Jeff, you welcomed me so warmly when Leighton nominated me for my place here. I always thought it was because you liked me. Now I know that you understood, somehow, that I would spend the rest of my life playing Abbot to your Costello.

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    2. AnnaMarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrria. ;)

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  4. Vigilant, valiant Victor vanquishes vast vistas of verdant veldt violated by venomous, vile, villainy, and vies to void the ventures of violence vomit vultures and vicious vermin. Verily, I vividly vocalize my verbose verbalization of Victor's vigorous and voluminous victories for the vulnerable victims via vital visits to village and valley. The vibrant viral video of his venerable vocation is a valuable vessel for the voicing of very visible virtues. We view vicariously, but vociferously vow: Viva, Victor!!!

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  5. What a wonderful organization! It amazes me, sometimes, that with all the negative news that floods our media every day, so many of these important and heartening stories go untold. I can only imagine how much more support this group would get if they got even a FRACTION of the media coverage the political stories get.

    Also? Good on Princess Diana for taking a stand, and I'd like to smack the pols who told her not to. This isn't a divisive issue. Ridding the earth of land mines is nothing but positive.

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    2. Thank you, Susan. I agree, there are a lot more people doing good things than doing evil, but the bad guys get much more publicity. From what I read, Princess Di was criticized for making taking a "military stand" on which she was not qualified to comment--absurd as that may sound. It seems to me that, because she was so popular and got so much publicity, the pols we're afraid that her position (which, after all, is basically pacifist) would become too popular. They had the guns, but she had the love. Deep down, they knew what force is the stronger on this planet.

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  6. Dogs have a 95% accuracy in picking up prostate cancer from a urine sample!
    Go Victor Go!!

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    1. Caro, are their false reading false positives or false negatives. Do you know?

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  7. Thank you for an instructive and pleasurable post. I think we are constantly finding out how animals can help us. The rats turn out to be really cute in addition.

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    1. Lil, human beings can learn a lot from other species--even plants. Just yesterday, as it happens, I listened to a TED talk by a person who is looking at the world from another point of view. The farm he describes at the end of his talk is nothing short of brilliant--but seems absolutely obvious once you hear it. If you want to take a listen, here it is:
      https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_pollan_gives_a_plant_s_eye_view

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