“Everybody’s first impression is that the rats are our enemies,” Tefera Agizew, a physician and APOPO’s head of tuberculosis, says of the animals’ reputation in Africa and beyond. “Once they see how they function, they fall in love with them.”
African giant pouched rats are not your typical New York City–style rodent. They’re calm, easier to train than some dogs, and able to work up to seven or eight years (they live eight to 10 years in captivity). Their body alone is generally longer than a 13-inch MacBook Air—and their tail is equally as long, if not longer. (A New York City rat is only about 16 inches, nose to tail.) A giant pouched rat’s sense of smell is so strong that they could conceivably detect half a drop of chlorine in a space the size of 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools, says…