Today, I was reading from a magazine we subscribe to called
Nature Friend. I love this magazine because there are so many interesting creatures and cool nature facts to learn. A rat from Africa called a giant Gambian pouched rat caught my attention. I did more research about it and will now tell you what I have learned. This rat is not an ordinary rat it is about the size of a raccoon and weighs up to 9 pounds!
This rat is nocturnal, it has very poor eye sight, but a very keen sense of hearing and smell. Another thing that sets it apart from other rats is that it has cheek storage pouches. It has been known to store so many palm nuts in it's cheeks that it cannot get into it's own burrow.
Right now, these little creatures are being used in Africa in a marvelous way.They are using them to help sniff out land mines. It can smell three times better than a bloodhound and is able to find explosives buried in war torn countries in Africa. They are very smart creatures, the training time to train them is relatively short. Plus, they are very friendly. I loved this little clip of one gathering food and stuffing it's cheeks! Take a look for yourself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxF6qGv6AOI
1 comment:
Amazing that something as gross as a rat can do so much as to save a human life.
K.M.K. out
P.S. My Mom would like to know how you do that signature thing.
Great post!
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