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Holland's 'sniffer rats' have a nose for crime-fighting
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24071303
Five "sniffer rats" have been in police training in the Dutch city of Rotterdam, learning how to distinguish between scents - including drugs and explosives.
The brown rats are due to go into active service next year, operating under the names Poirot, Magnum, Derrick - TV detectives popular in the Netherlands - and Jansen and Janssen, the Dutch names for the bowler-hatted detectives in Tintin.
It means the Netherlands will be the first country to use trained rats in civilian police investigations.
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Devilishly clever creature, the rat. When the human race is long gone, rats will still abide.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat
Odor detection
Rats have a keen sense of smell and are easy to train. These characteristics have been employed, for example, by the Belgian non-governmental organization APOPO, which trains rats (specifically African giant pouched rats) to detect landmines and diagnose tuberculosis through smell.