Wildlife Traffiking Doesn’t Stand a Chance Against These Fashionable Rats

Trained African giant pouched rats could be the solution to curbing the global problem of the black market for illegal wildlife products. The clever rodents do it fashionably in tiny, customized, and functional vests.

“The vests are a great example of developing hardware that could be useful across different settings and tasks, including at a shipping port to detect smuggled wildlife,” explains Dr. Kate Webb, co-first author of the training study.

The African giant pouched rat has an impressive sense of smell, can detect many different scents – and tell the difference between them – and can get into tight spaces. Eleven rats were trained to hold their noses near a target scent for several seconds, learn the difference between target and non-target scents, and remember the target scents after five and eight months of not being exposed to them. By the end of the training, eight rats became top-tier detectors able to detect all four of the target species’ scents – elephant ivory, rhino horn, African blackwood, and pangolin scales – among 146 non-targets. The rats are fitted with a vest featuring a small ball attached to the chest. When they detect a target scent, they pull the ball, triggering a beeping sound that alerts handlers to their find.