Africa’s giant rats have been trained to sniff out landmines and detect tuberculosis in humans, and soon they could turn their superior noses to protecting other animals by finding illegal wildlife trophies being smuggled out of African ports.

Kirsty Brebner, whose organisation Endangered Wildlife Trust had the idea of putting rats to work on the illegal wildlife trade, disclosed this on Friday in Nairobi.

She said the U.S. financed project was still in its early stages, but the rats that would be trained to scuttle over shipping containers in search of pangolin scales were only born in October.

Brebner said the aim was to prove by late 2017, that their powerful sense of smell could distinguish the illegally traded items.

She said the items would be detected, even if they were stashed in coffee or other scent-masking substances in containers before they were loaded onto ships for export.

She said "I firmly believe that we are going to be able to prove that they can.

Continue reading, see pictures at http://www.bookspen.com/scientists-train-rats-detect-tuberculosis-humans/

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