“Everybody’s first impression is that the rats are our enemies,” Tefera Agizew, a physician and APOPO’s head of tuberculosis, says of the animals’ reputation in Africa and beyond.

And so Weetjens founded APOPO, a nonprofit rat training organization in Tanzania, home to the largest and longest-living rat species. Some of the African giant pouched rats trained by APOPO can ...

SEE ALSO: Pangolins, the world's most trafficked mammals, get major boost in battle against extinction APOPO, a Belgian non-profit group involved in the project, has worked for years with African ...