THE famous African rat Magawa sniffed out more than 100 land mines in Cambodia, possibly saving thousands of lives. Over the weekend, Magawa died peacefully, according to a press release by APOPO, an organization that trains rats like Magawa to hunt land mines.

“A hero is laid to rest,” APOPO said in Tuesday’s release, “Magawa will leave a lasting legacy in the lives that he saved as a landmine detection rat in Cambodia.”

Magawa was part of a program called HeroRAT, which now has 96 rats detecting land mines, 32 rats detecting tuberculosis and 44 rats deployed in research and innovation.

Magawa was an African giant pouched rat born in Tanzania at a training and breeding center at the Sokoine University of Agriculture in 2013. Magawa honed his sense of smell to detect explosives in Tanzania, then moved to Siem Reap in Cambodia in 2016, where he began his career.

Magawa’s job description involved sniffing the air for the presence of TNT and marking the ground with his paws when he detected a land mine. He was paid in bananas.

More than 60 million people living in 59 countries from Cambodia to Zimbabwe live in fear of land mines from past conflicts, according to APOPO.

“Landmines are still inflicting pain and fear to a new generation of Cambodian people, a generation that wasn’t even born when these mines were laid,” the organization said in its press release.

Cambodia is plagued with land mines after decades of fighting, from its civil war to the regime of the Khmer Rouge. Estimates from the Cambodian Mine Action Center show more than 2.7 million land mines were removed from 1992 to 2020.

Over the course of his career, Magawa found more than 100 land mines and other explosives, making him APOPO’s most successful HeroRAT to date, according to the organization.

In September 2020, he was formally presented with a PDSA Gold Medal, the highest award for gallantry an animal can receive.

Magawa was in good health and spent most of his last week playing with his usual enthusiasm, but toward the end he started to slow down. Magawa had recently celebrated his birthday in November, reaching the grand old age of 8, APOPO says. (SD-Agencies)