BEYOND THE CALL OF DUTY
A medal for a mine-detecting rat
HERO RAT
Magawa, an African giant pouched rat, has been awarded a gold medal for “life-saving devotion to duty” by UK animal charity People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA). The PDSA Gold Medal was initiated in 2002 to honour and reward significant acts of courage and devotion to duty by animals, the highest honour recognising extraordinary animal bravery.
Magawa is a mine-detecting rat. He was trained by the Belgium-registered charity APOPO who have been teaching rats to detect landmines since the early 1990s. There are an estimated 80 million landmines still active and unknown across the world. The African Giant Pouched Rat is much larger than standard-sized pet rats, but is still light enough to be able to walk over a landmine without setting it off. Magawa and his fellow ‘HeroRATs’ are considered easy to train, as their highly developed olfactory abilities allow them to detect landmines because of certain chemicals contained in the devices. Once they do so, they signal to their handler, who then disposes of the mines safely.
Magawa has been working in Cambodia, a country with the highest number of mine amputees per capita in the world, a total of over 40,000 people. He has been working there for seven years and is able to search an area the size of a tennis court in about 30 minutes. A human armed with a metal detector would take four days to cover the same ground.
To date, Magawa has discovered over 39 landmines and 28 items of unexploded ordnance, and has cleared over 141,000 square metres of land (equivalent to the size of two football pitches), which makes him the charity’s most successful HeroRAT.
Altogether, PDSA has honoured 30 animals for their heroic and selfless deeds. Last year, for example, Bacca, an English police dog, was given the award after helping to chase down a violent assailant. Bacca received eight wounds to his head and neck in the process. Magawa is the first rat upon whom the honour has been bestowed.
BBC News; D.Telegraph, 25 Sept; indiaexpress.com, 26 Sept 2020.
MAD BAD WOLF
A French marksman shot a “mad wolf” on 23 September as it attacked a herd of dairy cows in theVal d’Ajol sector, between theVosges and Haute-Saône departements. Since August it had killed over a dozen cows and 20 sheep during a month-long rampage across eastern France. The lone wolf was said to have displayed “atypical behaviour”, even entering farmyard buildings to hunt its prey. Although wolves are a protected species in France, the sustained attacks and failure of deterrent measures led the authorities to authorise the shooting. pledgetimes.com , 23 Sept; D.Telegraph, 24 Sept 2020.
SCHOOL SEAGULL SIEGE
A primary school in Kent is being targeted by a rogue gull attacking children and staff and leaving some of the latter with facial injuries. Minster Church of England primary school’s head teacher Paul McCarthy has admitted to feeling helpless and powerless to prevent the renegade seabird’s assaults. The RSPCA have suggested pupils and staff carry umbrellas with which to repel the airborne assaults; this, said a clearly frustrated Mr McCarthy, “wasn’t a very practical piece of advice.”
Minster, located near Ramsgate on the Isle of Thanet, has a recreation ground, play area and an all-weather pitch,
all of which have also been dive- bombed. “The bird has been terrorising residents over the whole of the summer holiday period with many attacks,” said Mr McCarthy. “We have had an ongoing problem since the start of the academic year. One child was repeatedly pecked on their head and two members of staff have facial injuries from the bird’s feet scratching at their faces. ”All the attacks, he claims, have been unprovoked. “It will literally dive-bomb people, appearing from nowhere making it very hard to prevent it happening,” he explained.
The impact of Covid-19 and the necessity for children to distance themselves during playtime and lunchtime has added another level of stress. “If this wasn’t tricky enough to manage with 400 pupils, I have then had this seagull putting a massive spanner in the works,” sighed Mr McCarthy. “It seems crazy that a seagull is effectively holding the school hostage and that we can do nothing about it.”
The seagull is thought to be a juvenile which had been handreared in the village and thus has no fear of humans, but, no longer being fed, has become aggressive. Wendy Vinson, another member of the school staff, has urged local people to report any further gull-related incidents to the parish council. The parish authority acknowledges having received gull reports, but says it doesn’t have the power to take action. “There is nothing that Thanet District Council can do directly regarding seagulls attacking schoolchildren or other residents,” a spokesman said. “If the children are eating their lunches or snacks in the playground, this is a potential source of interest for the seagulls that may be coming down to steal food.” kentonline.co.uk, 22 Sept 2020.
BANDIT AT THREE O’CLOCK
Meanwhile, a black-headed gull brought down a drone over a school in south west Scotland. The drone was carrying out a roof survey at Stranraer Academy in July when the attack occurred. An Air Accidents Investigation Branch report said the pilot had never before experienced the “level of aggression” shown by the bird, which attacked the 6kg (13lb) drone, causing it to crash on the school roof and sustain substantial damage. The pilot had launched the drone, flying it manually before placing it in autonomous flight mode. However, at this point the gull chose to engage the enemy and launched its attack. The pilot tried to re-establish manual control, but a propeller had been damaged, causing the drone to fall onto the school roof. The report said the pilot had previously used the drone in locations where gulls were present and had been “cautious” while operating, especially during nesting season, but had been surprised by the aggressive behaviour of this individual gull. BBC News, 9 Oct 2020.
WHITE HOUSE RACOONS
Departing US president Donald Trump was, of course, wellknown for his excoriation of the mainstream news media and what he termed its ‘fake news’. It now appears he had managed to enlist the aid of an aggressive raccoon, or possibly several raccoons, who engaged in repeated attacks on reporters at the White House during October, perhaps Trump’s final assault against his foes before the presidential election the following month.
Just before he began recording a news segment, CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns screamed at a vicious raccoon that was biting him on camera. The video is worth seeking out. “Frickin’ raccoons, man,” says Johns after shouting at the raccoon and throwing what looks like a box in its direction. This wasn’t the first time Johns had encountered one of the tough, bandit-masked beasts; another had jumped on his leg the previous week. Johns later tweeted that he had “heard one of the raccoons (pretty sure there are more than one) slipped into a WH guard shack last night… they’re totally unafraid of people at this stage.”
The week prior to that, CBS White House correspondent Paula Reid tweeted about raccoons attacking multiple news crews on the White House’s North Lawn. Reid later reported that the White House grounds had placed a cage trap baited with marshmallow in an effort to capture the rogue raccoons, but these animals were evidently too smart. Reid examined the cage the next day, finding it empty of both raccoons and marshmallows.
There is a long and venerable history of raccoons visiting the White House, whether invited or not. The most famous was Rebecca, President Calvin Coolidge’s pet raccoon. It remains to be seen whether Trump’s attack raccoons will be left in place, Gladio-like, to give President Biden a warm welcome when he arrives at the White House in January 2021. washingtonian.com, 7 Oct 2020.