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Happiness is a handful of peanuts! 💚🥜🍌🥑

It's #FullCheekFriday – HeroRAT Baraka gets to stuff his cheek pouches with a feast!

#FCF #herorats #TGIF #weekendvibes #gardenmeal #pickyeater

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The Friday Vibes are strong...

Happy #FullCheekFriday! Have a fabulous weekend friends 💚

#HelloWeekend #TGIF #HeroRATs #CheekPouches #FCF

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Bananas...good to the last bite! 🐭🍌

Happy #FullCheekFriday from trainer Charity and HeroRAT Silver 💛
A weekend well spent brings a whole week of contentment...

#helloweekend #fridayvibes #TGIF #FCF

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Subbie loves a good #FullCheekFriday feast...

Celebrate the weekend folks ☀️

#TGIF #FCF #weekendvibes #HeroRATs #helloweekend

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Did you know that the African giant pouched rats are named so, thanks to their large cheek pouches? These omnivorous rats do not always swallow their food immediately - instead, they store it away in their pouches to feast on later.

Happy #FullCheekFriday everyone! 🐭🥕🧡

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One of the challenges of a #FullCheekFriday feast is racing siblings to reach the tastiest treats first...😅
After a week of hard work getting socialized & learning to wear different harnesses, these HeroPUPs are really happy that the weekend is finally here! Have a great one! 🐭

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Watermelon anyone? 🍉

Only the freshest for our #FullCheekFriday!

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HeroRAT Doumbouya works on getting his 5-a-day 🐭🍉🍅🍌

Happy #FullCheekFriday to you all, enjoy the weekend! ☀️😎

#helloweekend #herorats #weekendvibes #TGIF

RT @herorats
Did you know that a #HeroRAT can fit a WHOLE banana 🍌in their cheeks with careful chewing and placement 😅

Last #FullCheekFriday of the year features Teddy and Chiquita - have an amazing weekend folks! New year's resolutions coming in hot. See you next year 💫🐭

it is a day late, sure

but apopo herorats had a truly excellent #fullcheekfriday ,

ok the real good content on facebook has been found: apopo herorats continuing to bravely try and make #FullCheekFriday a thing

check out this fella CAUGHT RED HANDED https://www.facebook.com/heroRAT/photos/a.117726844980325/4318647774888190/

@SapphicGiraffic @bunny_jane @Vordus oh shit we talkin herorats?!??! bc i love them dudes

they make an effort to hire and train local folks so it's not just some people sweeping in from europe and dictating, and that's something i've always appreciated. they also are rated fairly highly on various charity watch sites iirc!

they're light enough that they don't set off mines, they end up having a longer working life than dogs (and train up quicker), and it is an incredibly efficient way to clear landmines. it's extremely expensive and time-consuming to get a proper mine removing piece of equipment and do it that way - it's basically an armored tank meeting a mechanical plow. obviously tilling up the soil and setting the landmines off is a good way to be sure you have gotten all the landmines, but it's also dangerous and expensive and very, very slow. a team of a rat and its handlers can not only get shit done much quicker, but much more safely, and much more cost-effectively - which means that they can then remove even more mines instead of having to spend the money schlepping around a huge mine-removing machine. and they're even much quicker than a lone person with a mine detector and a lot of bravery can do. (plus, y'know, a lot safer!)

there are some articles that have been written about it you can find, and the pics and videos from them are frickin' adorable to boot. they train the ratties with mashed up banana as the usual favourite reward. they also try very hard to make #fullcheekfriday a thing on facebook, and since the gambian pouched rats are pouched due to being able to stuff their cheek pouches like a hamster, it is ADORABLE.

here's a fairly recent story about how one particularly notable rattie went into retirement last year! https://www.npr.org/2021/06/04/1003258540/after-years-of-detecting-land-mines-a-heroic-rat-is-hanging-up-his-sniffer his career numbers are amazing: "In four years he has helped to clear more than 2.4 million square feet of land. In the process, he has found 71 land mines and 38 items of unexploded ordnance."

they also train the ratties to sniff out tuberculosis! results are confirmed by hand but they're incredibly good at quick initial screening. they also have the rather nice side effect of only giving false positives instead of false negatives - which means that stamping out tuberculosis in a community is much easier. (no having somebody lurk under the radar in order to reinfect the community, just maybe somebody gets antibiotics that didn't strictly need them. and even then, all the positives are checked by humans as well, so that doesn't even happen.) here's a nat geo article about the tb detection specifically! https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/140816-rats-tuberculosis-smell-disease-health-animals-world

the pictures of the ratties and their handlers are also so so cute. i think one of the articles from the new york times (sadly paywalled) has a bit of an interview with one of the handlers. his wife started out "don't you dare bring that thing home" but now both of them just completely adore the ratties to the point of probably asking to adopt said rattie when its tour of service is done. the retired ratties get to live in a nice 'retirement home' back at base more or less, and live in luxury doing things like starring in the cute videos for fullcheekfriday LOL

one cursed thought before i go sleeb

the true fate of the #FullCheekFriday hashtag, that the lovely herorats charity does not recognize and definitely will not unless forced, is

deffo furry porn related.

also apopo herorats continues trying their best to make #FullCheekFriday a thing and i for one am proud they are doing good work

the best part of following apopo's herorats on facebook is #FullCheekFriday one hundred percent https://www.facebook.com/heroRAT/photos/a.117726844980325/3758332940919679/