PDSA GOLD MEDALIST MAGAWA RETIRING
Siem Reap, Cambodia.
APOPO announced today that HeroRAT Magawa will retire this month.
During his illustrious five-year career, HeroRAT Magawa’s work has directly saved the lives of men, women and children who were impacted by hidden landmines and other deadly remnants of war. Every discovery he made reduced the risk of injury or death for the people of Cambodia. Magawa is an African giant pouched rat that was born in Tanzania in November 2013. Since 2000, APOPO has developed its operational headquarters, training and breeding center at the Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) where all the landmine detection rats are born and trained. This is also home to APOPO’s Innovation department that researches and develops the innovative applications and advanced techniques used in existing operations. This is where he learned how to find explosives using his amazing sense of smell. Magawa then moved to Siem Reap in Cambodia in 2016, where he began his successful career.
To date he has found 71 landmines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance, making him APOPO’s most successful HeroRAT. Over the past five years he has helped clear over 225,000 square metres of land, allowing local communities to live, work, play and be educated; without fear of losing life or limb.
https://www.apopo.org/en/latest/2021/06/PDSA-Gold-Medalist-Magawa-Retiring