The video below shows rats being trained in Angola to sniff out land mines. Although the rats that belong to the species used in training have such poor eyesight that they're nearly blind, their sense of smell is incredibly keen. So keen, in fact, that they greatly reduce the amount of time it takes to find land mines (strewn throughout the country after decades of civil war) and allow for safe detonation. They're trained to respond only when they smell explosives, and in two hours they're able to examine an area that would take days to clear if the work was done by humans.

Did this video change your opinion about rats at all, or did you always recognize them as the intelligent creatures they are? Let us know in the comments, and share on Facebook if you found the story as interesting as we did!