But now the organization is turning its attention (and its rats’ noses) to the global illegal wildlife trade. “Unfortunately, organized crime knows there’s a real weak spot in detection methods of ports, seaports and airports, particularly in Africa.”Traffickers disguise wildlife products in a whole host of ways, he explains. This is particularly important given that much of the illicit wildlife trade comes from some of the world’s poorest regions. “I’m hopeful that (using rats) for detecting wildlife will be a low cost, low impact, low footprint operation,” says Allan. The illegal wildlife trade not only impacts populations of the trafficked animal or plant, it can have devastating knock-on consequences for whole ecosystems.

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Persons: “ HeroRATs, ”, Crawford Allan, Ivory, APOPO, blackwood –, Allan, who’s, Dr, Izzy Szott, you’re, “, Kate Webb, they’ve, Chris Lau Organizations: CNN, WWF, Conservation, Psychiatry, Behavioral Sciences, Duke University Locations: Tanzania, Africa, North Carolina, Singapore, France, Dar es Salaam, Dar es