APOPO Visitor Center

This guide to the APOPO Visitor Center in Siem Reap starts with a stubborn problem: metal detectors sweeping Cambodia's minefields scream at every rusted tin and shell fragment, burying real mines in false alarms. It traces APOPO's unlikely fix, training African giant pouched rats, light enough to walk a minefield safely, to ignore metal and hunt only the smell of explosive. You'll hear how long that training takes and how it compares to a deminer working the same ground by hand. Watch the demonstration field in front of you, where a trained rat works the line nose-down.