TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY Otto Bakano - A

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY Otto Bakano - A baby giant African pouch rat is handled by its trainer after completing an exercice at the grounds of a pioneering Belgian NGO in Morogoro, Tanzania on October 27, 2010. Light, with an acute sense of smell and easily motivated by food rewards, these kind of rats have been found to be highly effective in mine detection. It takes two human deminers a day to clear a 200 square-metre (2,150 square-feet) minefield, but if they work with two rats they can sweep it in 1.5 hours. So far they have helped re-open almost two million square metres of land" in Mozambique. According to the United Nations Landmines are not always intended to kill; they are often deliberately designed to maim, frequently requiring amputation of an arm or leg. AFP PHOTO/YASUYOSHI CHIBA (Photo credit should read YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)