Small step in moral progress for humans. All major new papers covered the death of Magawa.
Lessons from Magawa is yet another reason for us to eliminate the pain and suffering we cause on rats for medical research.
Thank you, Magawa. History will not forget you.
In a five-year career, the rodent sniffed out over 100 landmines and other explosives in Cambodia.
Magawa was the most successful rat trained by the Belgian charity Apopo to alert human handlers about the mines so they can be safely removed.
The charity said the African giant pouch rat "passed away peacefully" at the weekend.
It said Magawa was in good health and "spent most of last week playing with his usual enthusiasm". But by the weekend "he started to slow down, napping more and showing less interest in food in his last days".
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Trained to detect a chemical compound within the explosives, Magawa cleared more than 141,000 square metres (1,517,711 sq ft) of land - the equivalent of 20 football pitches.
He weighed 1.2kg (2.6lb) and was 70cm (28in) long. While that is far larger than many other rat species, Magawa was still small enough and light enough that he did not trigger mines if he walked over them.
Magawa was capable of searching a field the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes - something Apopo says would take a person with a metal detector between one and four days.
In 2020, Magawa was awarded the PDSA Gold Medal - sometimes described as the George Cross for animals - for his "life-saving devotion to duty". He was the first rat to be given the medal in the charity's 77-year history.
- More Here and this the HeroRat project
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