Rat breaks Guinness World Records for sniffing out 109 landmines

Ronin, an African giant land-mine detecting rat in Cambodia, has become the first rodent to uncover over 100 landmines and other deadly war remnants.

In a recent statement, Apopo, a charity organisation that trains rodents, disclosed that the pouched rat has uncovered 109 landmines and 15 items of unexploded ordnance since August 2021.

Ronin’s exceptional accomplishments have earned the rodent the Guinness World Records (GWR) title for most landmines detected by a rat.

Ronin also broke the previous record held by HeroRAT Magawa, who detected 71 landmines and was awarded a gold medal for his bravery in 2020.

Adam Millward, the managing editor of GWR, lauded Apopo’s HeroRATs for training and caring for the animals.

“Guinness World Records feats aren’t always just about smashing milestones – sometimes they can be about smashing preconceptions too,” Millward said.

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“The life-changing results of APOPO’s HeroRATs, their handlers and all the people involved with training and caring for these incredible animals is a revelatory example of the good that can be achieved when humans and animals work together.”

Cambodia, a country in Asia, is still plagued by millions of unexploded munitions left behind from around two decades of civil war, which ended in 1998.

Since Apopo began its operations 25 years ago, the organisation has cleared 169,713 landmines and other explosives across the globe — over 52,00 of them in Cambodia.

The NGO also operates in other war-affected countries, such as Ukraine, South Sudan, and Azerbaijan.

Based in Tanzania, Apopo currently has 104 rodent recruits, or HeroRATS, as the organisation prefers to call them.