"HeroRATS: A Nose for Danger" with Cristophe Cox
4/28/202657 min
What if the most powerful weapon against landmines and disease weighed less than three pounds and ran on banana rewards? Meet the HeroRATs.
This week, Mark sits down with Christophe Cox — CEO and co-founder of APOPO — to tell the remarkable story of how a wild idea born in Belgium became one of the most innovative humanitarian organizations on the planet. From the organization's scrappy origins to deploying specially trained African giant pouched rats across minefields in Cambodia, Angola, and Mozambique, Christophe shares what it really takes to clear land that's been terrorizing communities for decades.
But landmines are just the beginning. These extraordinary animals are also sniffing out tuberculosis in clinics across Africa — catching cases that traditional testing misses — and now being trained for search and rescue and wildlife trafficking detection.
It's inspiring, it's eye-opening, and yes, it will make you see rats in a completely different light.
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First 90 secondsSpeaker 00:01
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Mark Kyle· Host0:20
[instrumental music] I'm sure you guys all know who Ratatouille is, but have you heard of Magawa, the landmine-detecting hero rat? Yep, there's actually a statue of him that was just unveiled in Cambodia a few weeks ago, and you know why? He uncovered over 100 landmines. In today's episode, Kristof Cox joins me. He's the CEO of APOPO. Now, they're a Belgium-based non-profit organization that's globally recognized for their innovative use of animals in humanitarian work. Then their Hero Rat program ... Now remember, Magawa's team has detected over 100,000 mines. Now, here are some crazy things. Did you know that over 60 countries have landmines? Now, why are they using Hero Rats? Now, aside from being extremely intelligent, they're also extremely efficient. Now, think about this. A human with a metal detector can take up to four days to cover an area the size of a tennis court looking for mines. Now, a Hero Rat, it takes 20 minutes. That's right, 20 minutes. Now, APOPO is much, much more,