Hero Rat Honoured with World’s First Statue in Cambodia

He was small, fast, and fearless, and now he’s carved in stone.

Cambodia has unveiled the world’s first statue dedicated to a landmine-detecting rat, honouring Magawa, the African giant pouched rat who helped make the country safer one sniff at a time.

The monument was revealed in Siem Reap ahead of the International Day for Mine Awareness, celebrating a rodent who cleared more than 100 landmines and over 141,000 square metres of dangerous land during his five-year career.

Trained by Belgian charity APOPO, Magawa used his sharp sense of smell to detect explosives. Because he was too light to trigger the mines, he could scamper safely across contaminated fields, covering the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes.

In 2020, he made history as the first rat to receive the PDSA Gold Medal for his “life-saving devotion to duty.”

Magawa retired and later died in 2022 at age eight, but his legacy lives on. Cambodia is aiming to be mine-free by 2030, and other “HeroRATS” are continuing the mission.

Proof that sometimes, the biggest heroes come in the smallest packages.