• Global statue honors mine-detecting rat
• Magawa discovered over 100 landmines during five years of service

In a unique tribute, Cambodia unveiled its first global statue honoring the rat ‘Magawa,’ who managed to detect more than 100 landmines over his lifetime.

Magawa lived to the age of eight, and between 2016 and 2021, he located over 100 landmines and explosive devices across various parts of Cambodia.

The statue, carved from local stone by artists, was unveiled in Siem Reap to coincide with the International Mine Awareness Day on April 4.

The threat of landmines in Cambodia remains high, with more than a million people living and working on contaminated land, according to the United Nations.

Magawa, a giant African pouched rat, received training from a Belgian charity before beginning his work in Cambodia in 2016.

He relied on his sharp sense of smell to detect chemical components in explosives, alerting supervisors so the mines could be safely removed.

Over his career, Magawa surveyed more than 141,000 square meters of land — roughly equivalent to 20 football fields — and could clear the area of a tennis-court-sized plot in just 20 minutes.

In 2020, the PDSA awarded Magawa a gold medal for his dedication to saving lives, making him the first rat to receive the honor since the organization’s founding 77 years ago.

After a brief retirement due to age, Magawa passed away in 2022.

Michael Ryan, program director in Cambodia, said the memorial “reminds the international community that the work of clearing mines is far from finished,” adding that Cambodia aims to be mine-free by 2030.

Since the 1990s, the organization has trained mice, known as HeroRATS, to detect landmines.

Thanks to their small size, they do not trigger mines when walking over them, making them safer than humans.

They can also detect tuberculosis far faster than traditional lab methods and have been trained to combat illegal wildlife trafficking in Tanzania.

In a recent achievement, another rat named “Ronin” set a new world record in 2025 after discovering 109 landmines and 15 explosive devices since 2021, surpassing Magawa’s accomplishments in northern Preah Vihear Province, Cambodia.