South African scientists have launched an anti-poaching campaign in which rhino’s horns will be injected with a radioactive material.<\/p>\n
The group, from the University of the Witwatersrand, said the process is harmless to rhinos but will allow customs officers to detect smuggled horns as they’re transported across the world.<\/p>\n
South Africa has the largest rhino population in the world, and hundreds of the animals are poached there every year.<\/p>\n
The university’s venture, called the Rhisotope Project, cost around \u00a3220,000 ($290,000) and involved six years of research and testing.<\/p>\n
“At least one animal a day is still being poached,” James Larkin, a Wits University professor involved in the project, told the BBC.<\/p>\n
“I think the figures are only going to go one way if we don’t watch out…. this is a significant tool to help reduce the numbers of poaching, because we’re proactive rather than being reactive.”<\/p>\n
Prof Larkin added that the pilot study, which involved 20 rhinos, confirmed that the radioactive material was “completely safe” for the animals.<\/p>\n
Jessica Babich, head of the Rhisotope Project, said: “Our goal is to deploy the Rhisotope technology at scale to help protect one of Africa’s most iconic and threatened species.” <\/p>\n
“By doing so, we safeguard not just rhinos but a vital part of our natural heritage.”<\/p>\n
The Wits University researchers, who collaborated with the International Atomic Energy Agency, found that horns could even be detected inside full 40-foot (six-metre) shipping containers.<\/p>\n
Each year since 2021, more than 400 rhinos have been poached in South Africa, says conservation charity Save the Rhino.<\/p>\n
The horns of African rhinos are often exported to Asian markets were they are used in traditional medicine and also seen as a status symbol.<\/p>\n
White rhinos are considered threatened, while black rhinos are critically endangered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South African scientists have launched an anti-poaching campaign in which rhino’s horns will be injected with a radioactive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-52708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}