In the United States, TB is not very common. In Africa, many people have this illness. In many cases, it can be deadly.
The good news is that there is medicine to treat people with TB. The bad news is that it costs a lot of money to test people for the disease. But HeroRats can help! When a person has TB, a certain kind of germ is found in their spit. The germ has a scent. And as Bart’s rats have proved, rats are very good at picking out scents.
Scientists started training the HeroRats to sniff for the TB germ. They did this the same way they trained the rats to sniff for land mines. They put different samples of spit into a tank with holes in the bottom. The rats would wander over the holes. When they smelled the TB scent, they would stop for a few seconds. If they were correct, they received a banana or a peanut. Pretty soon the rats learned to pass by the holes where they didn’t smell TB. They went straight for the holes that smelled like the germ—and got the reward!
Once the rats were trained, doctors put them to the test. They found out that the rats aren’t just as good as expensive tests—they’re even better! They find almost twice as many TB cases as the tests do.
The testing with rats is still in the beginning stages. Scientists have more work to do before the test can be used on real people. Still, they are hopeful that the rats could one day be the number one test for TB. If the rats are as good at finding the illness as some people think they are, they may save a lot of lives.
HeroRats is not alone in working to solve the problems of land mines or tuberculosis. Many people around the world are helping, and it is paying off. In 2002, almost 12,000 people around the world were killed or hurt in land mine accidents. Now, that number is less than 4,200 a year. In 2011, the number of TB cases went down for the first time in years.
Bart knows there is still work to do. But with his rats’ help, the world is already a better place.
THE END
DON’T MISS!
(Photo Credit p4.1)
Turn the page
for a sneak preview …
In the wild, baby orangutans like this one stay with their moms eight years or more. (photo credit p4.2)
(photo credit p4.3)
Chapter 1
A SCAMP IS BORN
July 1965, Omaha, Nebraska
A young orangutan peers out of his cage at the Henry Doorly Zoo. No humans are in sight. The coast is clear.
He sticks his long fingers through the chain-link fence. He bends back one corner. He pulls. ZZIIIIP! The stiff metal fencing unravels like a hand-knit scarf.
Some time later, veterinarian Lee Simmons arrives at work. He rounds a bend in the path and yikes! Dr. Simmons stops in his tracks. It couldn’t be, but it is. A shaggy, red-haired ape sits up in a tree. How did he get loose?
The ape is about six years old, tailless, and weighs 100 pounds (45 kg). He has a mustache and beard like a famous movie character. For that reason he is called Fu Manchu. Fu’s arms are super strong and longer than most fourth graders are tall. In a wrestling match against a man, the orangutan would win.
The ape doesn’t move or make a sound. But Dr. Simmons sees a twinkle in his eyes. The vet can’t help but wonder if Fu knew what he was doing. It’s like he’s been sitting there just waiting for me.
Fu climbs down. The sun sparkles on his red hair as he scrambles back to his cage. Dr. Simmons follows, shaking his head. What a crazy ape! He locks Fu inside. He calls someone to fix the fence and then goes about his normal business. And Fu goes about his—dreaming up more hijinks to come.
Fu was born in a rain forest on the Indonesian island of Sumatra (sounds like SUE-MAH-TRA). Like most baby orangutans, Fu probably never knew his father. Orangutan mothers care for their helpless babies. Fu’s mother nursed him. She held him and snuggled him. Every night she built them a nest high in the treetops.
These sleeping nests were the size of bathtubs. Fu’s mother made them by twisting leafy branches together. Each fresh, new nest must have felt as comfy to Fu as clean bedsheets do to you.
Usually Fu and his mom stayed dry in their cozy bed in the sky. At other times thunder boomed. Rain fell in sheets. Then the apes huddled together and turned giant leaves into umbrellas.
During the day, Fu often rode on his mother’s back. He clutched her hair as they swung through the trees looking for durian (sounds like DUR-EE-ANN) fruits. Durian fruits stink like sweaty gym socks. But orangutans go ape for the smelly stuff.
The problem is durian fruits don’t all ripen at the same time, and the trees are scattered. To find them, orangutans must keep a map of the forest inside their heads. For Fu’s mother it must have been like memorizing a school bus route with hundreds of stops.
Finding water was easier. It collects in hollow tree trunks after a rain. Fu might have gotten a drink by scooping water out with a folded leaf. Or maybe he chewed leaves into a sort of sponge. Then he sopped up water and dripped it into his mouth. Either way, Fu used leaves as tools.
Long ago, Indonesian people dubbed these clever apes “orangutans.” In their language the word orang means “person” and utan means “forest.” Together you get “person of the forest.”
One day Fu and his mother heard strange sounds in the swamp. Hunters had entered the jungle. They carried axes and homemade nets on their backs. Rivers of sweat ran down the men’s bare chests. Armies of insects buzzed in their faces. But nothing stopped them. The men were animal collectors. They feed their families by catching and selling wild animals. A baby orangutan will get them a lot of money.
Did Fu’s mother know they wanted her baby? Probably not, but she sensed danger. She swung from limb to limb, snapping off branches. She threw the branches down on the hunters.
The animal collectors looked up. The mother ape looked like a tiny black doll hanging against the blue sky. Was she holding a baby?
The hunters had a traditional way of catching orangutans. They didn’t try to climb up after them. Not at first. That might have spooked the ape into escaping through the treetops. Instead, the animal collectors formed a circle. They pulled out their axes and hacked away at tree trunks.
The ground shook as a tall tree crashed to the forest floor. Then a second one, and a third. The trees were so close together that each one that fell knocked down another. CHOP! CHOP! The men worked their way to the last tree—the one holding the apes.
Want to know what happens next?
Be sure to check out Ape Escapes! Available wherever books and ebooks are sold.
MORE INFORMATION
To find more information about the animal species featured in this book, check out these books and websites:
Face to Face With Dolphins,
National Geographic, 2007
National Geographic Kids Everything Dolphins,
National Geographic, 2012
Rain Forest Alliance “Kid’s Corner: Capuchin Monkey”
www.rainforest-alliance.org/kids/species-profiles/capuchin-monkey
National Geographic Digital Motion Rat Genius (video)
www.natgeoeducationvideo.com/film/283/rat-genius
National Geographic Channel “Capuchin Monkey” (short video)
natgeotv.com.au/videos/animals/capuchin-monkey-CF3958F9.aspx
(photo credit bm1.1)
This book is dedicated to the human heroes: Ned Sullivan, Chris Blankenship, and Bart Weetjens. Thank you for sharing your inspiring stories and making our world a better place.
CREDITS
p1.1 Cover, Bill Sumner
p1.2 Jason Nuttle
1.3 Tony Ashby/AFP/Getty Images
1.4 Flukeprint/Dreamstime
1.5 Shawn Jackson/Dreamstime
2.1 Jason Nuttle
2.2 Amidala76/ Shutterstock
3.1 Bill Sumner
p2.1 New England Aquarium
p2.2 Ivan de Petrovski
4.1 Courtesy of Ellen Rogers
4.2 Osebeck/Dreamstime
5.1 Courtesy of Ellen Rogers
5.2 Vilainecreve
tte/Dreamstime
6.1 Courtesy of Ellen Rogers
p3.1 Courtesy of Ellen Rogers
p3.2 Stuart Franklin/Magnum Photos
7.1 Alvaro Laiz
7.2 David Rengel
8.1 Stuart Franklin/Magnum Photos
8.2 William Lauer/Lincoln Journal Star
9.1 Stuart Franklin/Magnum Photos
9.2 Alvaro Laiz
9.3 Lieve Blancquaert
p4.1 APOPO
p4.2 Cyril Ruoso
p4.3 Life on White/Alamy (background)
bm1.1 Elena Elisseeva/Dreamstime
Shawn Jackson/Dreamstime
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Elizabeth Carney would like to acknowledge the following organizations for helping to make this book possible:
APOPO and HeroRats
www.apopo.org
The Dolphin and Marine Medical Research Foundation
www.dmmr.org
Helping Hands
www.monkeyhelpers.org
National Geographic Kids Chapters Page 4
