A mad scientist at the University of Zagreb, Croatia, has developed a new technique for finding unexploded land mines: bomb-sniffing bees! Professor Nikola Kezic spends his days training hives of honey bees--whose sense of smell is much more powerful than that of humans-- to detect and point out explosives buried in the ground. By combining sources of food with chemical explosives in a confined environment, Kezic conditions the bees to associate the smell of explosives with delicious sustenance. Once released into the wild, the bees make a bee-line (seriously this is too easy) for the land mines expecting to be fed.
Pop quiz, hotshot. There's an unexploded land mine on a bus...
The bees can be trained in a matter of days, and Kezic is hoping that they can be used in areas that have already been checked for land mines. Teams will follow the bees with special heat-sensitive cameras. If the bees congregate in an area where no land mine had been discovered earlier, that site will be investigated by the team.
The bees are first conditioned in a tent
Croatia is believed to have around 250,000 unexploded mines in 380 square miles of countryside, remnants of the Balkan wars of the 1990's.
Zooillogix
Don't Stick Your Fingers in the Cage
Video of the Week
Hairless Racoon
Bleiman Brothers Profile

In the wild, Andrew feeds on fish, sponges, small crustaceans, nematode worms and protozoans.

Benny's diet is very specialized, consisting mainly of the interior of Ramy nuts, nectar from the Traveller's Palm tree, some fungi and insect grubs. He is also known to raid coconut plantations, and has been seen eating lychees and mangoes, which are also plantation crops.
Search
Recent Posts
- Agility Gerbil Is Go
- FYI
- Happy Belated Mole Day!
- Fruit Bats Join Short List of Creatures Who Dig Fellatio!
- Sir, a Bloodbelly Comb has decloaked and is firing on the Zooillogix!
- Most Extreme Animal Shirts
- The Latest Addition to the Rat-cademy
- Zoologist Gets Shagged By Endangered Parrot
- Vegetarian Spider Lives By Its Own Rules
- Toilet Training of the Shrew
Recent Comments
- andrew b on FYI
- Teknoloji on Miniature Pigs: Pets of the Future
- gecengece on Tough Love for Fat Hamsters
- gecengece on Weird Fish Tanks
- gecengece on FYI
- Y on Most Extreme Animal Shirts
- oilcloth on FYI
- LiderPaylasim on Gallerie d'Bug Arte
- LiderPaylasim.net on Rare Pink Dolphin Pictures
- LiderPaylasim.net on Hookworms Are Nature's Claritin
Archives
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
Blogroll
Look How Important We Are
View blog authority
Read the super-informative Interview with the Bleiman Brothers
World's Largest Zoo and Shot Glass Collection
Now accepting donations in exchange for recognition and fame on Zooillogix!
Currently Featured: Seattle Aquarium from Jason Brunet of JeffTheFish.com - the official website of baby rats!
The List:
Adventure Aquarium
Aquarium of the Bay
Baton Rouge Zoo
Birch Aquarium at Scripps
Bronx Zoo
Brookfield Zoo
Cincinnati Zoo
Cleveland Metroparks Zoo
Florida Aquarium
Georgia Aquarium
Honolulu Zoo
Knoxville Zoo
Lincoln Park Zoo
Los Angeles Zoo
Maritime Center in Norwalk, CT
Milwaukee Zoo
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Mystic Aquarium
New England Aquarium
New York Aquarium
Newport Aquarium
North Carolina Aquarium
North Carolina Zoological Society
Oakland Zoo
Philadelphia Zoo
Pittsburgh Zoo
Rio Grande Zoo
Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies
San Antonio Zoo
San Diego Zoo
San Francisco Zoo
Santa Barbara Zoo
Sea World San Diego
Seattle Aquarium
Shedd Aquarium
Smithsonian National Zoo
South Carolina Aquarium
Tennessee Aquarium
Vancouver Aquarium
Feed me Seymour!
« How to Score Some Pangolin | Main | Orphaned Baby Hedgehogs: A Prickly Problem »
Can Bomb-Sniffing Bees Save Innocent Lives?
Category: bees • croatia
Posted on: May 30, 2007 3:11 PM, by ableiman
Share this: Facebook Twitter Stumbleupon Reddit Email + More
TrackBacks
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://scienceblogs.com/mt/pings/48420








