Magawa the Rat: A Rat Walked Across a Minefield… and Saved Lives

In Cambodia, millions of landmines were hidden in the ground.

One day, a big rat walked slowly across a field.

Suddenly, he stopped and started to scratch the earth.

Why did he stop?

This is the story of Magawa the hero rat.

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Landmine. A landmine is a bomb hidden under the ground.

It explodes when someone steps on it.

Millions of landmines were hidden in Cambodia's fields.

Sniff. When you sniff, you breathe in quickly through your nose to smell something.

Magawa sniffed the ground as he walked.

Explosive. An explosive is a substance that can blow up.

Rats can smell the explosive inside a landmine.

Reward. A reward is something good that you get because you did something well.

His reward was a piece of banana.

Detect. To detect something means to find or notice something that is hard to see.

In five years, Magawa detected seventy-one landmines.

Now, one pattern: can be, plus a past participle.

We use it to say what is possible, when the action matters more than the person who does it.

A rat can find a landmine by its smell.

A landmine can be found by its smell.

Ready? Let's begin.

For many years, Cambodia had wars.

Millions of landmines were hidden in Cambodia's fields.

Long after the fighting stopped, the mines were still there, and many farmers were afraid to work on their own land.

Magawa was an African giant pouched rat, much bigger than a city rat.

He was born in Tanzania, where a charity called APOPO trains rats to save lives.

He learned to look for one special smell.

Rats can smell the explosive inside a landmine.

In training, every time Magawa found the right smell, he got a treat.

His reward was a piece of banana.

Peanuts were his other favourite.

In 2016, Magawa moved to Siem Reap, in Cambodia.

In the mornings, he wore a small harness, and his handler held him on a long rope.

Magawa sniffed the ground as he walked, up and down the field.

But why didn't the mines explode under him?

Magawa was big for a rat, but he was still very light.

He was too light to set off a mine.

So a landmine can be found by its smell, and nobody gets hurt.

When Magawa smelled the explosive, he stopped and scratched the ground.

His handler marked the place.

Later, the mine could be destroyed safely by a team of experts.

And he was fast.

Magawa could check a field the size of a tennis court in about twenty minutes.

A person with a metal detector can take one to four days.

In September 2020, a British animal charity gave Magawa its gold medal for bravery.

Before him, only dogs had won this medal.

Magawa was the first rat ever to win it.

In five years, Magawa detected seventy-one landmines.

He also found thirty-eight other bombs that had never exploded.

He helped to make land as big as thirty football fields safe.

In June 2021, Magawa was getting older and slower, so he stopped working.

He spent his days playing and resting.

In January 2022, he died peacefully, at the age of eight.

Today, families live, work and play on land that Magawa checked.

Thanks to rats like him, more landmines can be found quickly, and many lives can be saved.

Let's review. Millions of landmines were hidden in Cambodia's fields.

Magawa sniffed the ground as he walked.

Rats can smell the explosive inside a landmine.

His reward was a piece of banana.

In five years, Magawa detected seventy-one landmines.

And remember: a landmine can be found by its smell.

Magawa's story teaches us: small heroes can do big things, and patient work saves lives.

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