What does APOPO stand for?
Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development
What does APOPO mean? APOPO is an acronym from Dutch which stands for “Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling”, or in English, Anti-Personnel Landmines Detection Product Development. What kind of organization is APOPO and what does it do?
Is APOPO tax deductible?
Donations to APOPO are tax deductible depending on your chosen method of support and jurisdiction. For more information on how to make a tax deductible donation click here.
Is APOPO a non-profit?
APOPO is a non-profit organization with Belgian roots. For 20 years we have tackled landmines or tuberculosis around the world. APOPO provides a low-tech, cost-efficient solution to pressing humanitarian challenges.
What do HeroRATs do?
APOPO’s scent detection animals, nicknamed ‘HeroRATs’ and ‘HeroDOGs’, help to rid the world of landmines and tuberculosis – returning safe land back to communities for development, and freeing people from serious illness so they can get back on their feet.
How much land has APOPO cleared?
APOPO celebrates its 20th Birthday
So far, the HeroRATs have helped clear over 106,000 landmines, identified over 12,000 TB-Positive patients who were missed by their clinics, and prevented almost 90,000 potential infections of tuberculosis – the world’s biggest infectious disease killer.
Who created APOPO?
Bart Weetjens
APOPO started as an R&D organization in Belgium in the 1990s, working with the support of research and government grants to develop the concept of Detection Rats Technology. As a pet owner, Bart Weetjens, one of the co-founders, came across an article about gerbils being used as scent detectors.
What kind of rats does apopo use?
Which species of rat? APOPO’s HeroRATs are African giant pouched rats (cricetomys ansorgei). This large muroid rodent is found throughout most of sub-Saharan Africa. HeroRATs are omnivorous and mainly nocturnal.
Where is apopo based?
Tanzania
The center is based at the site of APOPO’s most supportive partner the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, in which APOPO’s operational HQ also resides.
Where is APOPO based?
What kind of rats does APOPO use?
Can rats detect land mines?
While other animals can be trained to detect mines, APOPO found rats best suited for the job due to their small size—weighing less than three pounds, they are too light to set off the landmines. Magawa and other African giant pouched rats are trained for nine to 12 months to sniff out landmines.
Why did Magawa died?
The death of Magawa was announced a day after three mine removal experts working for another group were killed by an accidental explosion of an anti-tank mine in Cambodia’s northern province of Preah Vihear.
Why did a rat get a medal?
Magawa the ‘hero rat’, who was given a medal for detecting landmines in Cambodia, dies aged eight. During his incredible career, African giant pouched rat sniffed out more than 100 landmines and other explosives.
How do rats detect land mines?
Though they have terrible eyesight, the rats are ideal for such work, with their extraordinary sense of smell and their size – they are too light to trigger the mines. When they detect a mine, they lightly scratch atop it, signaling to their handler what they’ve found.
What is a mine rat?
Magawa was one of hundreds of “hero rats” that have been trained since the 1990s by APOPO to detect landmines. In 30 minutes, these rats can scan swathes of land as big as tennis courts for any presence of explosive chemicals. A human being with a metal detector will take four days to do the same job.
Can drones detect land mines?
Yes, it is possible for drones to detect land mines buried beneath the ground using Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR), however it is not a perfect solution.
Can dogs sniff landmines?
The Marshall Legacy Institute trains Mine Detection Dogs and delivers them to countries in need around the world. These dogs use their incredible sense of smell to “sniff out” the explosive odors of landmines. During an intensive training course, they are trained to locate both metal and plastic mines.
What type of rat was Magawa?
African giant pouched rat
Magawa was a Tanzanian-born African giant pouched rat. With careful training, he and his rat colleagues learned to identify land mines and alert their human handlers, so the mines can be safely removed.
Is Magawa still alive?
Magawa, a rat who spent most of his life sniffing out land mines in Cambodia and was recognized for his lifesaving contributions, died last weekend, the nonprofit that trained him said in a statement on Tuesday.
Why are NYC rats so big?
They are fed well and have ample places to stay, this makes it so that they are healthier and in better physical condition than ever before. That condition offers them the opportunity to grow bigger as they eat better and live longer.
How much weight does it take to set off a landmine?
Anti-tank Mines
These mines are pressure activated, but are typically designed so that the footstep of a person won’t detonate them. Most anti-tank mines require an applied pressure of 348.33 pounds (158 kg) to 745.16 pounds (338 kg) in order to detonate.
How are landmines detected?
A ground penetration radar is used to generate data set, which is then processed to reduce the ground effect and noise to obtain landmine signals. Principal components and Fourier coefficients of the landmine signals are computed, which are used as features of each landmine for detection and identification.
What is a landmine made of?
Made of plastic, metal, or other materials, mines contain explosives and some contain pieces of shrapnel. A landmine blast can be fatal or cause injuries such as blindness, burns, damaged limbs, and shrapnel wounds.
What chemicals are in landmines?
Landmines are made of a metal or a plastic casing that contains an explosive, usually the chemical trinitrotoluene (tNt). When a landmine is set off, it causes a chemical explosion that spontaneously releases a large amount of hot gas.
What eats rats in NYC?
Great Blue Herons
The large birds can reach head-to-tail lengths of up to around 54 inches and can weigh as much as 8 pounds. In a Twitter post, Barrett said: “Great Blue Herons eat plenty of fish, but they won’t pass up a meaty and filling New York City rat.”