Who's got the best sense of smell? Superstar sniffers of the animal kingdom

The African giant pouched rat is a great help in sniffing out landmines. Photo: 123rf.com

We like to think we’re at the top of the food chain and therefore pretty smooth but when it comes to smelling power, there are plenty of animals that outperform us.

African giant pouched rats are helping us by sniffing out landmines. They are better than dogs at detecting buried explosives and they’re so light that they can walk over the mines without blowing them up. Even more impressive, the rats can cover 200sq m in 20 minutes – so they work at a run.