APOPO HeroRATs in Siem Reap: Meet the Rats Clearing Cambodia's Landmines
Between a sunrise at Angkor and a lunch in town, there is an hour in Siem Reap that visitors often remember longer than the temples: an afternoon with the rats that are returning Cambodia's fields to the people who farm them. They are called HeroRATs, and they work for a Belgian nonprofit called APOPO.
Too Light to Set Off a Mine
APOPO was founded in Belgium in 1997 by Bart Weetjens and Christophe Cox. The name is a Dutch acronym for anti-personnel landmine detection product development, and its idea was an unlikely one: African giant pouched rats. They are born and trained at APOPO's centre in Morogoro, Tanzania, weigh between one and one and a half kilos - too light to set off a mine - and learn to smell explosives such as TNT while ignoring scrap metal.
That last point is the key. A deminer with a metal detector must investigate every scrap of metal in the ground. A rat skips it, and can search an area the size of a tennis court in about twenty minutes, work that takes a person with a detector up to four days.
Why Cambodia Still Needs Them
Nearly three decades of conflict, from 1970 to 1998, left an estimated four to six million landmines and other unexploded munitions in Cambodian soil. In March 2025, 1,697 square kilometres were still contaminated, and the country is working to be mine-free by the end of 2030.
APOPO began working in Cambodia in 2014 with the Cambodian Mine Action Center, and its rats started on live minefields in 2016. In its first ten years, the programme destroyed 2,669 anti-personnel mines, 18 anti-tank mines, 946 cluster munitions and 2,441 other unexploded items, and returned more than 40 square kilometres of land to local families.
Magawa, the Most Famous HeroRAT
Magawa worked in Siem Reap from 2016. Over his career he found 71 landmines and 38 other explosives and helped clear more than 225,000 square metres of land. In 2020 he became the first rat in the PDSA's 77-year history to receive its Gold Medal for life-saving bravery. He retired in June 2021 and died in January 2022, aged eight. Since April 2026, a 2.2-metre stone statue of him has stood on the Siem Reap riverfront, close to the Visitor Center.
What the Visit Is Like
At APOPO's Visitor Center in Siem Reap, a guide introduces the history of the mines and APOPO's work, then you watch a HeroRAT work a simulated minefield, nose to the ground, square metre by square metre. When it finds the scent of explosive, it signals, and its trainer rewards it. Visitors can meet the rats and hold one.
Our private APOPO HeroRATs visit takes about an hour, which makes it easy to fit around a morning at the temples - and it changes how you see them afterward.
APOPO in Siem Reap at a Glance:
- Duration: About one hour
- Where: APOPO Visitor Center, Siem Reap
- What you do: Short talk, live demonstration, meet and hold a HeroRAT
- Nearby: Magawa's statue on the Siem Reap riverfront
- Pairs well with: A morning at Angkor, or a day with the elephants at Kulen
Want to add the HeroRATs to your Cambodia trip? Write to [email protected] and we will arrange a private visit around your temple days.
