Training mice to detect smuggled wildlife

Scientists in the US, Belgium and South Africa have successfully trained African giant kangaroos (Cricetomys ansorgei) can detect the scents of ivory, rhino horn, African ebony and pangolin scales. These are the most trafficked mammals in the world. The study was published on Frontiers in Conservation Science on October 30.

According to the research team, this rat has an extremely sharp sense of smell, able to detect many different scents and distinguish them – not to mention they can get into tight spaces. In the past, they have been trained to sniff out explosives and even tuberculosis-causing bacteria.

To train mice to recognize the scents of wild animals, the research team used 11 individual mice participants who first had to learn to hold their noses close to the target scent for a few seconds. Then have them learn to distinguish between target and non-target odors (smugglers often use things like coffee beans and laundry detergent to distract detectors).

They also needed to be able to remember the target scents – even after 5 and 8 months of no exposure, the rats were still able to recognize the target scents.

At the end of the training, eight of the rats became expert detectors, able to identify all four scents of the target species and do so among 146 non-target odors. .

The published results show that the research team was successful in a laboratory environment. The scientists also said more research needs to be done to test the mice with different samples from one species and different concentrations of those samples.

The research team has now begun preparing the mice for deployment in real-life environments, by equipping them with functional vests.

The vests have a small ball attached to the chest that makes a beeping sound when pulled. Mice will be trained to pull the ball when they detect the target odor, which will alert the handler to their detection.

“The vests are a great example of hardware development that can be useful in different contexts and missions, including in shipping ports to detect smuggled wildlife,” Tien said. Dr. Kate Webb, Harvard Medical School, US, co-first author of the training study, said in a statement.