Radioactive rhino horns to stop poaching

By Alimat Aliyeva

In South Africa, home to most of the world’s rhino populations, scientists have innovated in the fight against poaching by injecting radioactive material into the horns of live rhinos to make them easier to detect at border posts.
Azerbaijannews reports.

This advanced project, designed to reduce illegal trapping of rhinos, aims to reduce demand for horns in Asia, where they are used in traditional medicine.

James Larkin, director of the Department of Radiation Protection and Medical Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand, who led the initiative, told media he had injected “two tiny radioactive chips into the horn” of one of the rhinos. He said the radioactive material “will render the horn unusable and virtually toxic for human consumption.”

Professor Nitaya Chetti, dean of the Faculty of Science at the same university, added that the dose of radioactive material is so low that it will have no effect on animal health or the environment.

Despite government efforts to combat illegal trade, in February the South African Department of Environment reported that 499 rhinos had been killed in 2023, an 11% increase from 2022.

As part of the Rhisotope pilot project, twenty live rhinos will receive a dose of radioactive material sufficient to trigger detectors at international border crossings established to prevent nuclear terrorism.

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