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Influences Of Tnt-Food Pairings On The Performance Of Mine Detection Rats In Early Training Stages, Timothy L. Edwards

Dissertations

Anti-Persoonsmijnen Ontmijnende Product Ontwikkeling (APOPO), a Belgian nongovernmental organization headquartered in Tanzania, trains giant African pouched rats (Cricetomys gambianus) to detect land mines and deploys the rats for operational use in countries afflicted with mines and explosive remnants of war. In the present study an evaluation of the influence of ongoing scent-food pairings on the performance of the rats in early mine detection training was conducted. Twenty young rats in APOPO’s mine detection rat program were divided into two groups and exposed to five daily stimulus-food pairing sessions each week. For the experimental group the stimulus was the …