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We of the Bilge appreciate our brethren in action: will work for Bananas!
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It's been a busy morning for Cletus, Meynard, Victoria and others of their furry band. Tiny noses and long whiskers twitching, they've scurried and sniffed their way across 8,300 square feet of fields to eliminate a scourge that has killed thousands of Cambodians: land mines. Meet the Hero Rats: intelligent, surprisingly adorable creatures with some of the most sensitive noses in the animal kingdom.

What a way to get your own scalytailed name on a plaque! Before going into the field, the recruits are tested: One missed mine, and they don't graduate to registered trademark HeroRATs. On weekends there's a special feast of apples, potatoes, watermelon and carrots...(for the survivors??) But what really drives their mine-sniffing are bananas and peanuts. They are given multivitamins and weighed twice a week (a fat rat is a lethargic rat, one keeper says). http://www.cbsnews.com/news/hero-rats-saving-cambodians-from-land-mines/