A South African university recently launched an innovative anti-poaching campaign that injects rhino horns with radioactive isotopes harmless to the animals.
This collaborative project among the University of the Witwatersrand, nuclear energy officials, and conservationists, hopes for a mass injection of the entire declining rhino population.
The university and its partners launched the project after successful initial trials on twenty rhinos confirmed the process was both completely safe and highly effective. Even low-level radioactive isotopes can be detected by radiation detectors at airports and international borders, which can lead to the arrest of poachers and traffickers.
James Larkin, the chief scientific officer of the Rhisotope Project, stated tests confirmed the process is completely safe for the animals, beyond any scientific doubt. Larkin also reported that even a single rhino horn with significantly lower radioactivity than what will be used successfully triggered alarms in radiation detectors.
He added that tests also confirmed individual horns could be successfully detected inside large 40-foot shipping containers, ensuring greater global security. The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that the global rhino population has catastrophically declined to around 27,000 from 500,000 at the start of the last century.
South Africa, home to the largest rhino population, tragically experiences high levels of poaching, with approximately 500 rhinos killed annually for their horns. Private and public rhino owners and conservation authorities have been urgently encouraged to approach the university to have their rhinos injected in the new program.