Rat with Westmeath links holds Guinness World Record

A rat sponsored by a Westmeath woman has achieved the Guinness World Record for the Most Landmines Detected by a rat, thanks to its efforts in Cambodia.

Eímear O’Donnell from Kinnegad adopted Ronin while travelling across Cambodia with a tour group. One of the stops on the tour was the APOPO Visitor Centre.

The APOPO charity trains Giant Pouched Rats to sniff out and detect land mines, as their light weight does not set off the mines.

The civil war in Cambodia ended in 1998, but the country still contains around four million unexploded landmines, which cause injuries and death every year.

Ronin is deployed in the Preah Vihear province and has detected more than 100 land mines and other devices left behind from the war, making him the most successful mine detection rat in the charity’s history.

Eimear said: “We got to see a demonstration on how the rats work and learn about what goes into training them.

“They get trained abroad, in Tanzania, and from there they get to work. The way they work is by sniffing out the landmines, alerting their trainer through a clicker that lets them know they are correct, and then they get a treat. So that’s how they cover such massive amounts of land.

“After we saw the different centres and had a look at all of the work they were doing, we were asked if we would like to donate and sponsor a rat, and I picked Ronin, so that’s how I ended up with him as my rat.”