Chongqing has trained its first batch of drug-sniffing squirrels! I am a civil servant!

Recently, the drug-hunting squirrel has become a hot topic!

A police dog brigade in Chongqing, my country, has successfully trained China's first batch of drug-sniffing squirrels, which are likely also the first batch of drug-sniffing squirrels in the world.

Drug-hunting squirrel is about to take up its post! | The Paper

The six members of this heroic team are demon squirrels, namely the northeastern subspecies of the Eurasian red squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris var. mantchuricus). The trainer said that they applied the technology of training bomb-sniffing dogs to rodents, and the effect was amazing - when the squirrels found drugs, they would tell humans by scratching.

The drug-hunting squirrel has taken away the dog's job!

Why do we need to train squirrels to detect drugs? Are we not working hard enough on training dogs?

This is really not their fault. Nowadays, drug traffickers have various methods. Dogs are limited by their physical conditions and cannot cope with all scenarios. At this time, the advantages of squirrels are highlighted:

On the one hand, squirrels are smaller and more agile , and can handle complex environments such as logistics warehouses and express delivery stations. When faced with a narrow gap, drug detection dogs are helpless with their big noses, but squirrels can drive straight in to find out what's going on.

Gouzi: It’s embarrassing, I can’t get in | JACLOU-DL / Pixabay

This flexibility can also help squirrels protect themselves. Drug enforcement is very dangerous. Compared with large dogs, squirrels can more easily use the surrounding environment to hide and are less likely to be retaliated by drug traffickers. There was news that a meritorious dog in the United States that assisted the police in seizing more than 2,000 kilograms of cocaine was offered a reward of 70,000 US dollars by drug trafficking gangs. If it is a squirrel, the danger it faces is relatively much smaller.

On the other hand, squirrels are also less expensive . Squirrels have a strong reproductive capacity, and because of their small weight, they do not eat much. They only need to be provided with pine nuts, hazelnuts and a small amount of nutrients to ensure their healthy growth. Studies have shown that the cost of training a squirrel is roughly one-tenth of that of a police dog.

Eat less, stay alive | Julia Wittmann / Wikimedia Commons

Squirrels also work for a long time . Captive squirrels can live up to 15 years and have adult mobility a few months after birth. They eat less and work more. Who doesn't like such a working mouse?

In fact, in addition to squirrels, many other animals have or are sharing the work of dog police officers, and the scope of their work is not limited to drug enforcement - you may find it difficult to imagine what they look like in police uniforms.

Piglets can be police officers too!

In 1984, a pig named Louis in West Germany joined the police force because of his ability to sniff out drugs, and was later promoted to a civil servant. Three years later, Louis retired from the police station with his trainer, who found him a boar named Lucas as a husband.

The United States has also made similar attempts. They introduced Vietnamese Pot-bellied pigs for training and put them into use in some areas.

A veritable pot-bellied pig... it's hard to imagine them appearing in a tense drug bust scene | HAH / Wikimedia Commons

This is a traditional domestic pig breed in Vietnam. Each pig only costs 300-500 US dollars and can live up to 20 years. Local judicial authorities have found that although this pig has poor eyesight, it has a good sense of smell and hearing. It is also very smart and can understand commands and can obediently wear a rope and ride in a car when on duty. Moreover, they do not shed hair ! This is very friendly to police officers who are allergic to animal hair.

A U.S. police dog officer once kept a black and white pot-bellied pig as a pet. In addition to teaching her commands such as sit, lie down, spin, and jump, he also taught her to search for drugs . Usually, he took the piglet and the police dog to the community and schools for law enforcement. Once in a primary school, the piglet actually found drugs.

Drew Dickason and his piglet Ellie Mae found marijuana under a can at Tri-City Elementary School in Buffalo, Illinois, USA. The piglet weighed only 18 kilograms at the time | Illinois state bar association

But the officer also admitted that compared with well-trained police dogs, his piglets are still far behind . Especially compared with the energetic Dutch shepherds and Malinois, it is difficult for piglets to maintain their energy for a long time and they get tired after walking a few steps; moreover, they cannot flexibly jump up and down in the field to search like police dogs.

Malinois (top) and Dutch Shepherd (bottom), both common working breeds | Tomás de la Maza; Moss K9 / Wikimedia Commons

How does Butterfly solve the case?

In the fight against drug abuse, butterflies have also made great contributions to mankind.

Peru is one of the countries with the highest butterfly species diversity in the world. Here, there is a small white butterfly called malumbia by the locals. They like to suck the juice of coca leaves - coca is the raw material for making cocaine, which makes them a clue for the police to solve cases.

In 1988, Peruvian police accidentally discovered this butterfly while tracking down drug dealers' hideouts. Following the clues, they seized coca fields covering an area of ​​more than 200 square kilometers and drugs worth $37 million.

Coca (Erythroxylum coca) is the raw material for making cocaine, and how many people have ruined their careers because of it | Wikimedia Commons

After that, the Peruvian police and local universities cooperated to breed a large number of butterflies for drug control. However, people know very little about malumbia, and it is difficult to find relevant research until now, so it is not certain whether they have become a common means of local drug control.

Minesweeper Hero Mouse

In addition to drug enforcement, humans often seek help from animals in the field of minesweeping (not the old computer game), the most famous of which is the minesweeper rat Magawa .

Magawa himself is so awesome | Apopo

Magawa works in Cambodia, where there are many bombs left over from past wars, threatening innocent residents on the ground all the time.

Like drug enforcement, mine clearance itself is a dangerous and difficult job. Whether it is manual mine clearance or the use of mine-clearing dogs or mine-clearing vehicles, it faces problems such as high costs and long time. The non-profit organization Apopo thought of rats, which are agile and have a keen sense of smell, and it really succeeded - they initially carried out a rat mine clearance project in Mozambique and helped the country clear all minefields within 12 years. Even more fortunately, although it is a high-risk job, no rat has ever suffered an occupational injury or death .

Magawa at work | Apopo

Because of his outstanding contribution to mine clearance, Magawa was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor by the British Veterinary Charity in 2020, which is one of the highest animal honors in the UK. He has discovered more than 100 mines or other explosives in his life and is Apopo's greatest hero rat so far.

Unfortunately, the elderly Magawa passed away in January 2022. It is precisely because of the rats' fearless work that local people no longer have to worry about losing their legs or even their lives.

Apopo uniformly calls their work rats HeroRATs, and they are indeed hero rats! | PDSA, AP

Before they can start working, the rats must undergo nine months of training. Interestingly, the rats are sensitive to sunlight, so they can only be trained early in the morning, and the staff must apply sunscreen to the ears and tails of the rats before training.

Trainers get up at 4 a.m. and apply sunscreen to rats before going out | South China Morning Post

Bees can also sweep mines

Bees also help with minesweeping, and they have an exquisite sense of smell, able to detect odors as subtle as one part per trillion in air samples.

For many years, researchers at the University of Montana have been training bees to clear mines. They add the common explosive TNT to sugar to let the bees establish a connection between TNT and sugar water. After successful training, the researchers will release the bees and track where the bee colonies land.

Bees also contribute! | Myriams-Fotos / Pixabay

In addition to releasing bees outdoors to clear mines, an American company also uses bees to detect bombs indoors.

After training, these bees will extend their long proboscis like they are smelling nectar when they smell explosives such as TNT and C4. The staff releases the odor source into the small box where the bees are placed, and records and observes the bees with a digital camera: if the bees detect the smell of a bomb, the software will recognize their extended proboscis, and people will know that there is a bomb here.

The company also proudly emphasizes that once the bees complete their "shift", they are sent back to the hive to live happily, and there is no labor exploitation.

Does Judy have a prototype?

As for this year's protagonist rabbits, they really wore police uniforms in "Zootopia", so does Judy in the movie have a real-life prototype?

In 2018, a British police department posted on Facebook that it had recruited a drug-sniffing rabbit to assist the police in their investigations. This incident was very popular, but unfortunately, the official later posted a clarification - this was actually just a joke, and the rabbit was just a visitor and was not employed.

The rabbit was just a visitor and was not on duty...but everyone was happy to take photos with it | Facebook@Tandridge Beat (Surrey Police)

But three days later, the police department joked that since they already had a rabbit officer, they should also recruit a donkey to help carry various tools and documents for work | Facebook@Tandridge Beat (Surrey Police)

Although the matter was clarified, this incident set the stage for a prank: on subsequent April Fools' Days, police stations often posted that they would soon have a rabbit police officer taking office.

On April Fools' Day 2019, a New Jersey police department introduced their "new team member: drug-hunting bunny Thumper" | Facebook@Waterford Township Police Department (NJ)

Although there are so many small animals that are more talented than dogs in drug detection and mine clearance, it seems that the emergence of various animal police officers will not lead to the unemployment of the Paw Patrol : dog training is still the most mature and comprehensive technology, and drug detection dogs are also the animals that have been in contact with humans for the longest time and have the best overall working results.

Whether it is a drug-sniffing dog or other small animals, they are all running in the most dangerous places for the safety of humans. Let us say together: Thank you small animals!

References

[1] Wang Yingchun. A review of the application of drug detection methods[J]. Journal of Railway Police College, 2011, 21(04): 55-57. DOI: 10.19536/j.cnki.411439.2011.04.014.

[2] Zhao Yi, Sui Liang, Pan Shengqi, et al. Research on the new drug-detecting animal squirrel[J]. China Educational Technology Equipment, 2020, No.487(13):121-123.

[3]https://www.isba.org/ibj/2020/02/lawpulse/cannabissniffingdogsstayingaround

[4]https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/pot-bellied-pigs

[5]https://apnews.com/article/76a12ddcc84bc916440e409158ae7777

[6]https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1988-02-04-mn-40745-story.html

[7]https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/bees-trained-to-sniff-out-bombs-researchers-say-1.608570

[8]https://www.livescience.com/4605-bees-trained-bomb-sniffers.html

Author: Siyi

Editor: Mai Mai

Cover image credit: Julia Wittmann / Wikimedia Commons

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