Cambodia unveils the world’s first statue dedicated to a landmine detecting rat
A rat Magawa, who was awarded a gold medal for his heroism has been commemorated with the world’s first statue dedicated to a landmine detecting rat. Magawa lived to eight years old, sniffed out over 100 landmines and other explosives in Cambodia during his five-year career that started in 2016.
A statue of the rodent carved from local stone by artists was unveiled in Siem Reap, Cambodia on Friday, in time for the International Day for Mine Awareness on 4 April. Landmines remain an ongoing risk to Cambodia, and more than a million people continue to work and live on land contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance, according to the United Nations.
Magawa was pictured in 2010 with his PDSA medal for gallantry – sometimes described as the George Cross for animals.
Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, was trained by the Belgian charity Apopo before moving to Cambodia to begin his bomb-sniffing career in 2016. Using his acute sense of smell and training to detect a chemical compound within explosives, Magawa would then alert human handlers of mines that could be later safely removed.
Magawa cleared more than 141,000 square metres (1,517,711 sq ft) of land – the equivalent of 20 football pitches – and could search a field the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes. In 2020, Magawa was awarded the PDSA Gold Medal – known as the George Cross for animals – for his “life-saving devotion to duty”. He was the first rat to be given the medal in the charity’s 77-year history. Following a short retirement due to old age and “slowing down”, Magawa died in 2022.
