Saharan Africa are large muroid rodents. Giant pouched rats are only distantly related to the true rats, although until recently they had been placed in the same family, Muridae. Females have been said to be capable of producing up to banana bomb pop litters yearly.
One to five young are born at a time. The animals are nocturnal omnivores, and feed on vegetation and small animals, especially insects. They have a particular taste for palm nuts. In many African countries, giant pouched rats are valued as an important food item. They are easily tamed as pets, but were associated with an outbreak of monkeypox in the USA in 2003, and have since been banned from importation to the U.
TNT, and at the same time they are light enough to not detonate any of the mines. The procedure for training rats to detect land mines was conceived of and developed by Belgian Bart Weetjens. Training starts at four weeks of age, when the rats are handled to accustom them to humans and exposed to a variety of sights and sounds. They learn to associate a clicker with a food reward of banana or banana-peanut paste.