Rats detecting land mines

[dementedlullaby]

I always wanted to try fish wrapped in a banana leaf cooked in an underground pit. I hear it's the best fish you'll ever eat.



Durian is pretty awesome tasting imo. But only if you get a nice ripe one as previously mentioned. It's pretty expensive over here, and that was a few years ago. You can only really find it in China town in my experience, even Asian supermarkets don't carry them. I imagine because of the stench issues which some people (rightfully so) just can't get over. If you can track one down I'd at least try it .

 

[The Snark]

Bringing this back to the original topic...


...is it possible to train pouched rats to detect durian, and bring to our friends/foes?

I suppose it would be possible. Perhaps even being done by the forest harvesting people. Carry a durian? Pieces of one I assume since the fruit is larger and heavier than the rat.

I've been told, again, of a family in Cambodia near Arunyaprathet that has a pouched rat that helps round up their kids. Come bath or meal time they ask the rat where the kids are and it makes a circuit of the village finding each one.


One warning about the durian for the curious. They have a limited time period from picking, ripening and eating. The window for the full flavor is only a few days from no flavor to it's equivalent of an over ripe banana. And like bananas they cannot be preserved or frozen and retain the flavor. So finding a really tasty durian away from regions where they are grown is rare and many people are put off the fruit by eating un or over ripe ones.