You might have heard of lifesaving animals in the way of police K-9 dogs, or even cats.

Now, hear about a lifesaving rat.

That's Magawa for you, an African Giant Pouched Rat who detects landmines.

On Sep. 25, Magawa was awarded one of the most prestigious medals for working animals by the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), a UK vet charity.

The rat received the PDSA Gold Medal, given to animals who show "lifesaving bravery and devotion in civilian life".

The medal is engraved with the words "For animal gallantry or devotion to duty".

Thus far, of the medal's 30 recipients, Magawa is the first rat.

Trained to detect explosives by scent

The seven-year-old rodent was bred and trained by Belgian non-profit APOPO, which has been training rats to detect landmines since the 1990s under its HeroRAT programme.

The rats are trained to detect a chemical compound found in the explosives, and once an explosive is detected, will scratch at the top to alert their human handler, according to PDSA.

At 1.2kg and 70cm long, Magawa is light enough so that he doesn't trigger any landmines.

Being able to zero in on the scent of explosives and ignore scrap metal has enabled rats like Magawa to search through areas with landmines much faster than any human can.

Magawa is able to search a field the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes — something which APOPO says would require a human with a metal detector one to four days.

Thus far, Magawa has sniffed out 39 mines and 28 items of unexploded ordnance, making him APOPO's most successful rat

It is estimated that around three million landmines have not yet been found and are littered around Cambodia. These hidden mines have led to thousands of casualties.

There is also potential for these hero rats to be trained to detect Covid-19.

At the moment, Magawa himself is close to retirement, where he can then look forward to more of his favourite food of peanuts and bananas, and a life of play and exercise.

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Top photo from PDSA / YouTube