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Science

Rescue Rats to Find Buried Victims 183

adaminnj writes "Rats are being trained to sniff out the buried victims of earthquakes and bomb blasts and could be sent to search for survivors in the same way as dogs. The idea of being rescued by a rat may not appeal to many people, but they have the advantage of being able to crawl almost anywhere and slip through small holes and crevices. Like dogs, they also have a highly acute sense of smell. But to be successful rescuers, they must be able to home in on victims and signal their position to waiting rescue teams."
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Rescue Rats to Find Buried Victims

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  • rats? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:44AM (#10348624)
    talk about being ratted out
  • Perfect (Score:5, Funny)

    by Skiron ( 735617 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:45AM (#10348637)
    And if the person is dead, eat them, thus saving costly search 'n' find excursion parties.
    • Who says the person has to be dead? Think of all of the savings on all of the old people and babies that can be safely ignored now that rats are being employed for this harrowing job!

      And the next thing you know, someone will be trying to train Pirhanas for underwater rescue missions...
      • Pirhana don't do the strip-the-flesh thing unless they're starving and provoked (which is how they got their reputation in the Western world: some Africans pulled a show to string Bwana Politician along, starving and confining pirhana for weeks, then driving a bleeding cow through them; nobody thought to question the show). There are also vegetarian pirhana which are very difficult to distinguish by eye from the omnivores.

        The only real barrier to SAR pirhana is that they're too dumb. You'd basically need a
    • Everyone's making these jokes about rats. Companies use them to test poisonous chemicals. They supposedly carry diseases.

      As crazy as it sounds, nobody give these animals any credit. If it was not for mice testing, your hairspray may cost $100 a bottle. And people spread disesases too, so why blame the poor thing. Finally someone have figured out a way to use them for a new purpose.

      • The rats themselves do not carry diseases (they are clean animals) - the fleas that live on them do - ala the Black Death in Europe during the middle ages.
        • The rats themselves do not carry diseases (they are clean animals)

          Of course they do, every animal, no matter how clean, has it's own fair share of diseases, some of which are capable of being transmitted to other species, sometimes including humans.

          Rats (and rodents in general) may not be any more filthy than other animals, but they pose a problem because they're more common in inhabited areas, and come in contact with humans (and perhaps more importantly) and human foodstuffs quite often. You don't want
      • If it was not for mice testing, your hairspray may cost $100 a bottle.

        This gives me an image of a lab full of mice with 'Flock of Seagulls' hair.
        *Shudder*

      • As crazy as it sounds, nobody give these animals any credit.

        One rodent gets a lot of credit. Royalties too. M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E

    • And if the person's not dead, they've got something to eat while they wait for rescue. Afterall rat burgers taste OK according to Sylvester Stallone in Demolition Man.
    • And if the person is dead, eat them, thus saving costly search 'n' find excursion parties.

      Ah, and don't forget this:
      But to be successful rescuers, they must be able to home in on victims and signal their position to waiting rescue teams.

      How do you think the rats "signal" when they've found a new survivor? They can't bark like dogs do, after all.... My guess is that the searchers depend on the person found to make some kind of "signal", when they wake up to find a rat nibbling curiously on their earlo
  • by kjones692 ( 805101 ) <the.cyborganizer@NOsPAm.gmail.com> on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:45AM (#10348641)
    To me, the most interesting thing about this is how they "train rats to feel pleasure at the smell of humans", then monitor their brains for any pleasure stimulus.

    But what happens when they come running to find that the rat has uncovered the world's largest cache of underground cheese?
    • Re:Interesting... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by caldfyr ( 814077 )
      Thanks for the laugh :)

      That's a valid question, though. I wonder how they would deal with that. Do you think rats might have a developed enough emotional system to allow a monitor to discern between happiness at a job well done, as compared to, "cheeeeeeeeeese"?

      I have to wonder if we're capable of emulating animal brains and just don't know it yet. It seems to me that we could feasibly create something in a small package, maybe terrier sized (gotta have room for batteries) that uses 400hz power (fo
    • Do you think they could train them to find my damn cell phone - I mean, they're getting so small that they're harder to find than a remote control.
      • My pet rats once went through the entire couch, pulling out everything they found and bringing it to me. This apparently was a fun game for them.

        Things they found: pens, pencils, a plastic ring like you'd get at the fair, several G. I. Joe guns and parts, a small film negative, a toothpick, and several other things I don't remember.

        Funny thing is that the pens and pencils are just about all I can explain. The others look about 5+ years old, at least. It's like an archeological dig. For rats.

        One of the

        • Things they found: pens, pencils, a plastic ring like you'd get at the fair, several G. I. Joe guns and parts, a small film negative, a toothpick, and several other things I don't remember.
          I notice they kept all the money (small change, etc) they found. Smart rats :-)
    • I own two female pet rats, and let me tell you: they believe in higher purpose. When they get it into their heads that something is really neat, or interesting, you cannot distract them with enough food. Well, not for long.

      Friend of mine occaisionally comes over, and he's allergic to the rats so doesn't want them on him. Problem is that the rats think he's really neat, so they'll constantly try to get on him, whether that involves flying leaps from the couch to his chair, climbing a pants leg, or just per

  • by Hubert_Shrump ( 256081 ) <cobranetNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:45AM (#10348644) Journal
    hope they don't train them with cheese.

  • by hattig ( 47930 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:46AM (#10348650) Journal
    "Hurrah! A rat, something to eat and drink at last!

    Dunno what this transmitter thing is, must have got trapped around the creature somewhere..."
  • Are these the robotic rats [go.com] we heard of earlier?
  • by katpurz ( 721210 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:46AM (#10348653)
    ..trapped under 12 feet of concrete rubble, not being able to move, and a rat is gnawing at your face...

    oh joy
  • Appeal (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EvanED ( 569694 ) <evaned@g[ ]l.com ['mai' in gap]> on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:47AM (#10348658)
    The idea of being rescued by a rat may not appeal to many people

    I bet it'd appeal more to most people than 'don't be rescued' though...
    • True ... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by gstoddart ( 321705 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @12:02PM (#10349089) Homepage
      I bet it'd appeal more to most people than 'don't be rescued' though...


      Yes, not getting rescued would definitely suck. But I hope they put these little suckers in some little 'rat rescue' uniform, otherwise when the rat does find the person, that person it going to be scared shitless that not only are they buried but the rats have started to find them.

      Heck, maybe a little rat loud-speaker saying "don't panic, this is a trained rescue rat" on a loop or someting.

      Cheers
      • But I hope they put these little suckers in some little 'rat rescue' uniform ... heck, maybe a little rat loud-speaker saying "don't panic, this is a trained rescue rat" on a loop or someting.

        I think if I was trapped under a building for days and a little rat in a uniform came by me saying he was on the rescue team, the first thing I'd do is ask if he's from NIMH.


        -Colin [colingregorypalmer.net]
  • Also for mines (Score:5, Informative)

    by Karamchand ( 607798 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:49AM (#10348661)
    Rats can also be used to search for buried mines. You might want to read this interesting NYT article [nytimes.com] about it. It was featured on slashdot some months ago, IIRC.
    • Rats can also be used to search for buried mines.

      Yeah, and unlike dogs (or small children), nobody complains if they find them (kaboom).

  • great.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by k3v0 ( 592611 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:50AM (#10348667) Journal
    Unless your name is Winston Smith shout out to George Orwell
  • by `Sean ( 15328 ) * <sean@ubuntu.com> on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:53AM (#10348684) Homepage Journal
    This reminds me of an article that was pinned up in the copy room at Lucent in Allentown a while ago about rats that had been trained to run telecom and network cables through existing ductwork in schools. It was quite a few years ago so I forget the specifics, but it looked rather cool. Google has been unhelpful for the moment, but I'm still searching for more information.
  • Ben.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ralph Spoilsport ( 673134 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:53AM (#10348690) Journal
    Ben, the two of us need look no more
    We both found what we were looking for
    With a friend to call my own
    I'll never be alone
    And you, my friend, will see
    You've got a friend in me
    (you've got a friend in me)

    Ben, you're always running here and there
    Finding dead bodies everywhere
    If you ever look behind
    And don't like what you find
    Keep going and follow my distant calls
    Under these broken walls
    (under these broken walls)

    I used to scream "HELP!!!" and "ME"
    Now it's "us", now it's "we"
    I used to scream "HELP!!!" and "ME"
    Now it's "us", now it's "we"
    Ben, most people would turn you away
    I can't hear a word they say
    They only see you as some trouble
    Searching all this rubble
    I'm sure they'd think again
    If they had a friend like Ben

    (a friend) Like Ben
    (like Ben) Like Ben

  • Oh Rats! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:55AM (#10348702)
    Yeeaah, that's a good idea. Train rats to enjoy hunting down humans. This will end well, lol.

  • Rodents in general (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:57AM (#10348714) Journal
    I've heard of stuff like this before.

    I read of a project that was training weasels, or maybe ferrets, something in that family for the same type of thing. They're naturally curious, able to squeeze through unimaginable spots, etc.

    The weasels were big enough to strap a little camera and transmitter to, and the idea was that they'd just go everywhere in the rubble.. Their natural curiosity would handle that part.

    Them biting/eating victims (another natural instinct) was a problem. So the rescue critters would be "de-fanged", or rather have their teeth filed down when it was time to actually go to work. This of course, cripples the animal for the rest of it's life but the logic is "we sacrifice a couple of chinchillas to save one human life and it's worth it".

    Of course, PETA and the like threw a fit. But even "animal lovers" look the other way when it comes to rats.
    • Reason #1 : Weasels & ferrets aren't rodents at all, they're mustelids. Think skunks, otters, minks. They eat rodents, actually. And chincillas aren't even closely related to weasels, so I don't know why you're putting them all together. Reason #2 : Mustelids are all pretty particular about what they eat. (Except wolverines.) Humans are way too big. Besides, even with filed teeth, they'd probably still try to gnaw on something they thought was food.
    • Actually, birds mice and rats not considered animals under certain laws, this was done in order to make it easier to experiment on them. So while its all nice that they can complain about ferrets, PETA wouldnt have a (legal) leg to stand on for rats.

      Heres a quick google [thelantern.com] about it.
    • Domestic rats don't just "bite victims." They're handled by humans from birth and become as docile and friendly as a well-treated dog. Mass media makes people think rats are vicious. Any wild animal will defend itself if you fuck with it.
    • As someone who once owned a ferret, I can tell you'll they'll definitely bite when annoyed. And ferrets have locking jaws, which means that they'll clamp down - somewhat like a pit bull - and if they don't want to let go it's damned near impossible to get them off without injuring the ferret, or the person the ferret is hanging on to, or both.

      (Although I quickly learned that dunking an unruly ferret underwater, or sticking the little bastard under a shower head, will convince him to let go. They don't se
    • Teeth filed down would not be crippling for life, rodent incisors grow continuously and they have to keep them ground down the same way a parrot has to with its beak. They'd have a couple weeks of difficulty, then they'd be fine.

      Mal-2
  • The science bit... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Seehund ( 86897 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:58AM (#10348717) Homepage Journal
    I first thought this was something else than what I've been reading about recently, and not just about using yet another trained animal.

    I thought wrong.

    The /. blurb forgot to mention that what's so special is that the rats have electrodes implanted in their brains, which send a signal to the rescuers when the rat has found what it's looking for.
  • bomb atack (Score:4, Funny)

    by IAR80 ( 598046 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @10:59AM (#10348722) Homepage
    If you do a bomb atack also release 20 hungry cats in the area.
  • by number one duck ( 319827 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @11:01AM (#10348737) Journal
    This one is easy. Just program a microphone to pick up on the sounds of flesh being torn from the bones of the victims, and treat this as the "Found one!" signal. Hopefully you can triangulate the position of the victim before they are fully devoured.
  • Slowarses! (Score:2, Informative)

    by Lord Graga ( 696091 )
    There have been rats in training since a month after september 11th (the year where al-queda struck), maybe even before, and it was in the news back then too. A quick sweep over to google will reveal that.
  • by UranusReallyHertz ( 567776 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @11:02AM (#10348741)
    ... can this technique be used on women to train them to seek out the smell of all us unwashed geeks and nerds!
  • by Anonymous Coward

    Rescue rats will sniff out buried victims

    JOHN INNES

    RATS are being trained to sniff out the buried victims of earthquakes and bomb blasts and could be sent to search for survivors in the same way as dogs.

    The idea of being rescued by a rat may not appeal to many people, but they have the advantage of being able to crawl almost anywhere and slip through small holes and crevices.

    Like dogs, they also have a highly acute sense of smell.

    But to be successful rescuers, they must be able to home in on thei

  • by Drunken_Jackass ( 325938 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @11:05AM (#10348760) Homepage
    I don't know about you, but the last thing i want to see after being buried under rubble from a collapsed building is a freakin' rat.

    They better dress these disease caddies in orange jumpsuits and affix a shot of something to a barrel under their necks.

  • And, like dogs, many people have white rats as pets..

    They are smart, clean, and gentle..

    Its the garden variety outdoor wild-rat that are the nasty ones that might just as well eat
    a victim than save one....
  • I understand rescuers are really careful to prevent things from shifting while digging, but rats are much smaller than humans. I guess I just have this vision of the poor little guy squeezed into a tiny little tunnel right next to the victim he's found and some guy accidently stepping on him.

    Not only would PETA be upset, but that's a waste of neuro implants!

    And how do they make sure the rats seek out victims only and not rescuers?
  • by feelyoda ( 622366 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @11:26AM (#10348900) Homepage
    if you haven't seen my blog, check it out here [blogspot.com]. below is my post there on this matter:

    Slashdot links this article [scotsman.com] on cyborg rats used in search and rescue. I've been told that one big problem is giving a guarantee that the rats don't begin eating the people (dead or alive) they find. I suppose that the stimulation of pleasure centers of the brain would dominate other such carnal urges.
    Each rat has electrodes implanted in three areas of the brain which process odour signals, plan movements and experience rewards. The scientists stimulated the reward centre to generate feelings of pleasure when the rodent's nose picked up a whiff of human. In this way, the rats were trained to seek out human odours.
    All of this is desirable for a few reasons. The computer-rat brain interface research is also very applicable to computer-human brain interface. I just went to this [cmu.edu]very interesting talk on the subject. Further, very dexterous robots with high level perception are few and far between. A rat is amazingly mobile and also has an excellent perception suite. Of course, along the way, projects like this could save lives, and that is always wonderful.
  • Working Animals (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Inexile2002 ( 540368 ) * on Saturday September 25, 2004 @11:27AM (#10348907) Homepage Journal
    Personally I think its a fantastic idea. I've had a pet rat myself, and known a couple of other people who had them. They're smart as hell, easy to train and they're cheap. I've heard of aid workers in Africa training rats to find mines in mine fields. They're too small to set the mine off, but can sniff out the explosives like a dog. If you can train a mine sniffing rat, a human sniffing rat should be easy.

    Using animals as workers is actually something I like the idea of. Like mixing llamas in with sheep. The llamas will adopt the sheep as it's flock and the sheep aren't afraid of the llama. But a llama can and will kick a coyote's ass if one comes sniffing around. (And literally kick the coyote's ass.) I do feel sorry for the people that have to volunteer to lie under rubble while they're training the rats though, but hey, its for a good cause. (How would you put that on your resume? Well yes, for 6 months last year I was employed as a trapped earthquake victim for rat training. No, seriously.)
    • My parents have a pair of llamas in their field. They will chase any dog without mercy that happens to come into that field. They get along just fine with horses and cows, and don't seem to mind my parents' cat.

      My parents recently gave away a llama (he was too lazy for backpacking) to a farmer who needed a llama to guard some sheep from dogs and coyotes. They are very protective of other herd animals they live with.
  • by bodrell ( 665409 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @11:29AM (#10348925) Journal
    This story hit http://www.newscientist.com/ [newscientist.com] a couple days ago. [newscientist.com]

    If you like stories about animals sniffing things, they also have stories about giant rats sniffing out tuberculosis [newscientist.com] and dogs sniffing bladder cancer [newscientist.com] just to name two recent stories. I check out their news section first thing in the morning, then the nytimes, then slashdot.

  • Interesting idea (Score:4, Insightful)

    by NtroP ( 649992 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @11:30AM (#10348929)
    My wife and I used to raise and breed rats - it drove my mother nuts.

    After working with them, we found them to be pretty intelligent and very clean. On top of that, they seem to be able to get into amazing places.

    We had a pair of rats in particular that we kept as "pets" (the rest were used for breeding and were sold to pet stores). These two rats were large, white and housebroken (easier to do with a rat than a dog). They got along very well with our two cats and one dog. We used to sit, watching TV with them curled up on our laps.

    All that being said, although I've never had to be rescued from a collapsed building, I have had to be rescued from a plane crash in the boonies before. Frankly, I wouldn't have cared if they sent a Kodiak Grizzly to find me, I just wanted to be rescued. However, having crashed in a grizzly area, I'd have to admit that it would have been emotionally distressing for me and potentially dangerous for the bear (I don't fly over those areas unarmed - for good reason).

    So, (and I can only imagine here) being buried under a pile of rubble, I'm pretty sure I'd be worried about rats in the first place (keep in mind I like rats - but I also know them). This rat-rescuer had better be very well marked as such or it's history. For someone, like my mother, it would be traumatic to be rescued by a rat, but if she were burried, and the rat was marked as a "rescue-rat", even she might come around.

    As far as being able to train a rat to do the deed, I have no doubt that it can be done. But there are going to be quite a few perceptual hurdles to overcome. For many, it'd be like training a snake to rescue people. They could get into even tighter spaces, but half your victims would die of fright before you could get them out and you'd be pulling out a badly beaten snake for the other half.

  • I was reading somewhere that human's sense of smell is just as accurate as a dog's or rat's. The thing is that our nose filters out most of the chemicals. But what we normally call our sense of taste is actually primarily smell. The tongue only senses sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. The rest of the 'taste experience' is the sense of smell, provided by the chemicals wafting up to the nasal cavities in the back of the mouth.

    So you could smell stuff as good as a dog, if you want to put it in your mouth.


    • Actually, dogs still have a much, much better sense of smell than we do. They have (depending on the breed), around 20 times more receptors than we do, and that's nothing to sneeze at.

      In tests where a person lightly touched an object, dogs were able to pick up the smell after the object had been left outside as long as two weeks.

      Of course, no animal is equally receptive to every single smell imaginable. Just like some smells are much stronger to us than others, the same is true of dogs - but yo
      • Did you miss the part about our sense of smell being inside the mouth? That's why you don't want to open your mouth when it stinks. Dogs have more receptors, sure, but many people think that people are 'smell-blind'. Which isn't the case.

        Dogs basically have their sense of smell on the outside of their wet noses. I'm sure that if people could set lightly touched objects against their olfactory receptors inside the nasal cavities, we could tell who had touched things, too.


        • Well, put your idea to the test: Have your friend fart in a room while he's walking around. Go in there with your mouth open, so the airborn smells are hitting the receptors in your mouth and nose. Try and figure out which path he walked in the room. If you can't do it, my dog wins! : )

          steve
          • Receptors are in the nasal cavity. Dogs kind of cheat, because they have theirs on their wet noses, hanging out in the air. In order to compete on the same level, you would have to somehow suck the air through your mouth up into your nasal cavity. (Maybe a pump on your nostrils?)

            Then, take patches of couch cushion and shove it up into your nasal canal until you get a positive ID. steve too.

  • by stratjakt ( 596332 ) on Saturday September 25, 2004 @11:56AM (#10349049) Journal
    The idea of being rescued by a rat may not appeal to many people

    If I'm trapped under a collapsed building after an earthquake for a week, drinking my own urine and eating scraps of drywall, I don't care if it's RMS and Darl McBride who rescue me while debating the GPL.

  • I'm the Rescue Rat.

    I will found out where he's at.

    I'm sniffing.
  • I'm going to start marketing cheese-scented clothes for guaranteed rescues.


  • Those guys have experienced modernity long enough to forget that rats deserve their bad reputation in human history. A young girl I know just realized recently how bad the idea of owning a rat as a pet is. She had it as one of those quirky, wannabe-alternative drives and even made her roommate imitate her and get a rat too, in not too long her rat ate her roommate's rat, and as a result she got her roommate a bunny, but her rat, again, attacked the bunny and ate its eyelid and ears.
    Rats are notoriously unr
  • can we turn off the red eyes in the dark if we're going to use these critters.

    Oh wait, this isn't a cartoon.

    Why not just put a cellphone on a lunar lander like thing and send it in and make the phone ring?

  • But to be successful rescuers, they must be able to home in on victims and signal their position to waiting rescue teams."

    And, you know, not try to eat them before the rescue team gets there...
  • Much more successful than the experiment with rescue grizzlies.

  • Wrong rodents [utexas.edu], but still, gotta hand it to Disney for preparing us for the world to come.
  • To me, the most important part of the story is that they trained the rats by stimulating their brain's pleasure centers. Are there any neurosurgeons who will implant an electrode into my brain's pleasure center? That must be the absolutely coolest way to go: dieing from happiness.
  • In related news, rescue rodents [ling.uu.se] to join the effort. Unfortunately there's a risk of infecting found victims with rabies.
  • I've had a few pet rats over the years. One time, I put a rat under a funnel, with an opening just a little bigger than a nickel. The rat was able to squeeze out through that hole. (Kind of disturbing the way it's eyes bugged out as it did it, though)

    I wonder how much their tracking equipment would limit their mobility through tight spaces? Well, regardless, being able to squeeze through a 2 inch space is almost as good as a 1 inch space.

    Oh, and there's another danger besides rats gnawing on trapped v
  • 'You asked me once,' said O'Brien, 'what was in Room 101. I told you that you knew the answer already. Everyone knows it. The thing that is in Room 101 is the worst thing in the world.'

    The door opened again. A guard came in, carrying something made of wire, a box or basket of some kind. He set it down on the further table. Because of the position in which O'Brien was standing. Winston could not see what the thing was.

    'The worst thing in the world,' said O'Brien, 'varies from individual to individual. It m
  • What, over a hundred comments and none about Chip 'n Dale's Rescue Rangers? What's wrong with you people? I mean, sure the two title characters are chipmunks, but Monty was all mouse, and Gadget was so totally hot... Oops, did I say that out loud?

    C'mon, you can sing it with me, you know the tune...

    Some times some crimes
    Go slippin' through the cracks
    But these two gumshoes
    Are pickin' up the slack

    There's no case too big, no case too small
    When you need help just call

    Ch-ch-ch-Chip 'n Dale's [sic]
    Rescue Range
  • Pure genius! What will they think of next? Rescue vultures for people lost in deserts?
  • Not that unusual, as I remember reading about giant Gambian pouched rats being used for
    landmine detection [theage.com.au]

    After all, if a rat is blown up, no one is going to cry a river (unlike a human EOD expert).

    Go rats!

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