Could Nuclear Tech Stop Rhino Poaching?

Christina Thompson (Anchor, EarthxNews): This might sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but it’s real! Researchers in South Africa have injected radioactive material into the horns of rhinos as part of a research project aimed at reducing poaching.

The idea is that radiation detectors already in place at national borders would detect the horns and help police arrest poachers and traffickers. But injecting rhinos with a radioactive material is no easy task. The animals are tranquilized before a hole is drilled into its horn and the nuclear material carefully inserted.

So far, researchers in South Africa have injected 20 live rhinos with these isotopes with the help of veterinarians and nuclear experts.

Arrie van Deventer (Founder, The Rhino Orphanage): You get a thing like nuclear medicine nowadays so, it’s not, nuclear and radioactivity not only kills, but it also cures. So it’s perfectly safe for the rhino, but it’s not safe for the poacher because they can’t move the horn. And this is really why it’s all about…it’s a magic idea.

Thompson: They hope the process can be replicated to save other wild species vulnerable to poaching like elephants and pangolins.