The first squirrels trained in China to detect drugs will be deployed in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality to search for drugs in a complex environment of places such as logistics warehouses and delivery stations.Photo:IC

The first group of squirrels trained in China to detect drugs will be deployed in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality to search for drugs in a complex environment of places such as logistics warehouses and delivery stations.

Six anti-drug squirrels involved in the first training are Eurasian red squirrels, which have been certified by relevant scientific research institutions for their drug searching.

"Squirrels have a very good sense of smell. However, it's less mature for us to train rodents for drug search in the past in terms of the technology," said Yin Jin, a handler with the police dog brigade of the Hechuan Public Security Bureau in Chongqing.

"Our self-developed training system can be applied to the training of various animals," Yin introduced, adding that the training has really good results as the squirrels can quickly identify drugs.

Unlike drug dogs, squirrels are small and agile, which makes them good at searching high places for drugs. 

The squirrels were also trained to use scratching to tell their handlers that drugs might be present when they were found.