Rats, often seen as a scourge on mankind, are being shown to be a benefit too. Besides being trained to find land mines, giant rats are being used to sniff out TB victims (Telegraph). It’s a brilliant idea. Actually, both of them are.
This reminds me of Joshua Klein’s talk at the TED conference about the amazing intelligence of crows. He brings up the idea that instead of trying to wipe out creatures that we consider parasites or vermin, we should be trying to learn more about them and work with them for our mutual benefit.
It looks like a number of smart people in Africa are already doing this. I think the rest of the world needs to look at our populations of rats, roaches, crows, squirrels, raccoons, pigeons….you name it…and get more creative on how we can live together.
Both the Telegraph article and the Klein talk are well worth while.
(This rat in a flickr photo from gilbrit’s photostream is smart enough to debug software. 🙂 Ok, maybe not. Good photo, though.)
Smart People I Know 
I am doing research on any uses for Rats. Once idea was to sell them to snake breeders..but they have to be caught alive.
I want to motivate people to catch rats in my Township (Thokoza, East of Johannesburg, South Africa). We are experiencing serious problems.
If I can find alternative uses for them, I can initiate my initiative/programme and motivate people to trap them.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Thaoge Maake
+27 (0) 78 735 2985 (mobile telephone number)
Thaoge, if you are having serious problems, have you considered or are able to change the habits and behavoirs in the township in a way that discourages rat breeding? For example, instead of encouraging young people to catch them, you could encourage young people to centralize township waste in an area that makes it harder for rats (or at least gets them outside the township). And if you could do that, you might also be able to introduce some natural predators (snacks, cats) that could also keep down the rat population.
I think rats are smart and efficient. The challenge is to use that to control their population and keep them away from people. Through a combination of techniques to discourage them from living around people, that may be tehe best way to go.