게시일: 2026 년 4 월 6 일 (일요일)
Cambodia has unveiled the world’s first statue dedicated to a landmine-detecting rat, honoring the heroic African giant pouched rat known as Magawa.
The statue, carved from local stone by artists, was unveiled in Siem Reap, Cambodia on Friday, in time for the International Day for Mine Awareness on 4 April.
Magawa, who lived to eight years old, sniffed out over 100 landmines and other explosives in Cambodia during his five-year career that started in 2016. He cleared more than 141,000 square metres of land – the equivalent of 20 football pitches – and could search a field the size of a tennis court in just 20 minutes.
In 2020, Magawa was awarded the PDSA Gold Medal – known as the George Cross for animals – for his ‘life-saving devotion to duty’. He was the first rat to be given the medal in the charity’s 77-year history.
Following a short retirement due to old age and ‘slowing down’, Magawa died in 2022. His legacy continues through the work of other HeroRATS trained by Apopo.
Apopo’s Cambodia Programme Manager, Michael Raine, said the monument for Magawa ‘is a reminder to the international community that there’s still a job to be done here’. Cambodia now has a target date of 2030 to become mine-free.
The charity Apopo has been training its rodents, also known as HeroRATS, since the 1990s. Because of their small size, the rats are not heavy enough to detonate mines, making them a safer option than humans.
Landmines remain an ongoing risk to Cambodia, and more than a million people continue to work and live on land contaminated by mines and unexploded ordnance, according to the United Nations. Magawa’s statue serves as a symbol of hope and progress in clearing these dangerous remnants of war.
📌 한국어 요약
캄보디아는 지뢰 탐지 영웅인 아프리카 거대 주머니생쥐 마가우를 기리기 위해 세계 최초의 동상을 공개했습니다.
📚 핵심 단어
- Landmine: 지뢰 – 땅에埋設된 폭발물
- African giant pouched rat: 아프리카 거대 주머니생쥐 – 지뢰 탐지에 훈련된 생쥐
- PDSA Gold Medal: PDSA 금메달 – 동물에게 수여되는 최고 훈장
- Unexploded ordnance: 불발탄 – 터지지 않은 폭발물
- HeroRATs: 영웅생쥐 – 지뢰 탐지에 훈련된 생쥐들