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South African Researchers Test Use of Nuclear Technology To Curb Rhino Poaching 50

Researchers in South Africa have injected radioactive material into the horns of 20 rhinos to deter poaching, aiming to leverage existing radiation detectors at borders for early detection and interception of trafficked horns. The Associated Press reports: The research, which has included the participation of veterinarians and nuclear experts, begins with the animal being tranquilized before a hole is drilled into its horn and the nuclear material carefully inserted. This week, researchers at the University of the Witwatersrand's Radiation and Health Physics Unit in South Africa injected 20 live rhinos with these isotopes. They hope the process can be replicated to save other wild species vulnerable to poaching -- like elephants and pangolins. "We are doing this because it makes it significantly easier to intercept these horns as they are being trafficked over international borders, because there is a global network of radiation monitors that have been designed to prevent nuclear terrorism," said Professor James Larkin, who heads the project. "And we're piggybacking on the back of that."

According to figures by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, an international conservation body, the global rhino population stood at around 500,000 at the beginning of the 20th century. It now stands at around 27,000 due to continued demand for rhino horns on the black market. South Africa has the largest population of rhinos with an estimated 16,000, making it a hotspot with over 500 rhinos killed yearly. [...] While the idea has received support from some in the industry, the researchers have had to jump many ethical hurdles posed by critics of their methodology.

Pelham Jones, chairperson of the Private Rhino Owners Association, is among the critics of the proposed method and doubts that it would effectively deter poachers and traffickers. "(Poachers) have worked out other ways of moving rhino horn out of the country, out of the continent or off the continent, not through traditional border crossings," he said. "They bypass the border crossings because they know that is the area of the highest risk of confiscation or interception." Professor Nithaya Chetty, dean of the science faculty at Witwatersrand, said the dosage of the radioactivity is very low and its potential negative impact on the animal was tested extensively.
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South African Researchers Test Use of Nuclear Technology To Curb Rhino Poaching

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  • Medication? Status symbol? Idiocy. Poachers should be shot.

    • You should kill the motivation if want to help.

      The poacher occupation exists only because the poaching money is so much better than the next-best occupation over there. So, come up with a way to raise the rates so that poaching pays less, and you won't have to kill (or prosecute) them.

      Or, if you want to kill, kill the end users, who create the demand, which is another way to push the poaching money to zero.

      • From https://www.scientificamerican... [scientificamerican.com]

        These days the main threat to the surviving rhinos comes from the illegal rhino horn trade between Africa and Asia. Certain buyers in Vietnam and China —the largest and second-largest black market destinations respectively—covet rhino horn products for different reasons. Some purchase horn chunks or powder for traditional medicinal purposes, to ingest or to give others as an impressive gift. Wealthy buyers bid for antique rhino horn carvings such as cups or

        • These days? Trade in poached African animals to Asia has been a huge problem since at least the early 90s. I'm sure it has been compounded many times over with the drive of mainland Chinese business to take over Africa and turn it into a Chinese colony that we've seen develop since then.

          • I remember reading about it in a Gerald Durrell book (they were autobiographical) back in the 1980s, and I have no idea which book it was so I can't look up when it was written - make it the early '80s or the 1970s. There was something about its supposed properties as an aphrodisiac (the horn being stiff) in traditional Chinese medicine.

      • Another good countermeasure is to increase the value of live rhinos through tourism, trophy hunting, or whatever, creating jobs for locals.

        That gives the local people an incentive to oppose the poachers, who are often their friends and neighbors.

        This strategy has been a resounding success in South Africa and is now working in Kenya.

        • Another good countermeasure is to increase the value of live rhinos through tourism, trophy hunting, or whatever, creating jobs for locals.

          That gives the local people an incentive to oppose the poachers, who are often their friends and neighbors.

          This strategy has been a resounding success in South Africa and is now working in Kenya.

          I'd add in taking people that want to hunt rhinos on these trips to tag the horns with radioactive tracers. They won't have a lethal weapon but instead a tranquilizer dart gun. They get the thrill of a hunt, a "trophy photo" with themselves and the knocked out rhino, and maybe they can take the small pieces of the horn home that were created in the drilling of the horn to put in the tracer.

          There could certainly be lawful hunting of rhinos for the meat, horn, hide, or whatever. Even if endangered there's

    • Severe punishment has been considered but only makes the whole situation worse. Poachers are locals who are trying to survive. Everybody in the local villages has a cousin who's a poacher. It's ok to put them behind bars, but if you start shooting them, you turn the locals against the preservation campaigns. They'll refuse to tip you on who is doing it or where it happens most, or they'll start giving shelter to poachers. This sort of issues are long lasting.

      • As long as they keep the rad levels low for detection only, rather than like a big piece of Strontium-90. Otherwise you have poachers bringing the horns back to the village, where people start dying of radiation sickness. Plus the rhinos might also. Killing the rhinos would end the rhino trade but not the way you might want.
    • Twice. First shot should be in the nuts.
  • by martin-boundary ( 547041 ) on Saturday June 29, 2024 @02:14AM (#64587163)
    Can we make that radioactive growth hormone please? I bet if the rhinos become kaiju, then the poachers will think twice about catching them. What could go wrong!
    • by Mr. Dollar Ton ( 5495648 ) on Saturday June 29, 2024 @02:20AM (#64587177)

      What could go wrong!

      Many of the animals could die from rare cancers, in terrible suffering and without help.

      • No Kaiju has ever died of cancer. Except for the earliest category 1 who were taken down with end,ess pounding with conventional weaponry, every single Kaori death was at the hands of a jaeger, none of whom had a cancer based weapon.

        Whoosh!

      • Many of the animals could die from rare cancers, in terrible suffering and without help.

        For fuck's sake........ You do realize you already contain radioactive materials, right? Carbon-14, Potassium-40, Uranium, Thorium......

        They are using SMALL amounts....

        • You do realize you already contain radioactive materials

          Yes, I do. And? That's a reason to add more because?

          Africa's wild life is in danger because of the abject poverty there, which creates economic motivation for poaching. Improve on that, and the poaching will go down.

          They are using SMALL amounts....

          Yes, "small" amounts that will trip the detectors at the border crossings. You might want to check what activities they are calibrated for ;)

  • ...radioactive rhinos glow in the night, making them an easy target for poachers!
  • Hell yeah (Score:4, Funny)

    by mobby_6kl ( 668092 ) on Saturday June 29, 2024 @03:42AM (#64587257)

    Nuke the poachers!

  • by mkwan ( 2589113 ) on Saturday June 29, 2024 @03:59AM (#64587275)

    Poachers will shoot the rhino anyway because the radioactive material isn't visible from a distance.
    The middleman might get caught at the border, but the rhino is still dead.

    • Probably they'll spot the hole after killing it, and saw it off or drill it out.

    • The middleman might get caught at the border, but the rhino is still dead.

      If the middleman can't move his goods, the market dries up, and there is no longer an incentive to shoot rhinos.

      • Drug smuggling has been working so well despite our efforts to catch the mules and middlemen. It's enough for a small percentage to go through; it just increases the market price, and rich idiots are plenty enough to buy it all.

        I think we need to look further in dehorning the rhino. It changes their behaviour, makes them feel vulnerable and avoid social contact https://www.science.org/conten... [science.org] but it's a life insurance. Rhinos without a horn stay alive and breed. Asocial dehorned live rhinos are better tha

      • by ls671 ( 1122017 )

        The middleman might get caught at the border, but the rhino is still dead.

        If the middleman can't move his goods, the market dries up, and there is no longer an incentive to shoot rhinos.

        It gets even better! Apparently, Vietnamese people use rhino horn powder to cure their headaches and other things. Let's see how that's going to work when they ingest radioactive stuff.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Once the middle men realise there is a very significant chance of getting caught, demand will decrease.

    • Poachers will shoot the rhino anyway because the radioactive material isn't visible from a distance.
      The middleman might get caught at the border, but the rhino is still dead.

      In the short term.

      But then the middlemen can't sell the goods and the poachers can't get paid.

      My only concern is geigercounters aren't that hard to obtain so the middlemen might simply be able to weed out the radioactive horns.

  • Dont get bitten by a radioactive rhino.
  • OK, so directly detecting radiation from smuggled animal parts sounds like a good idea. How about making the radioactive material spread to anyone who handles the animal parts, especially if it's relatively long-lasting & difficult to get rid of. Could that be done harmlessly? That way, anyone who's involved in poaching & smuggling can be easily identified with a detector. If it's spread to people who aren't involved but come into contact innocently, they can still be of help to investigations. How
    • OK, so directly detecting radiation from smuggled animal parts sounds like a good idea. How about making the radioactive material spread to anyone who handles the animal parts, especially if it's relatively long-lasting & difficult to get rid of. Could that be done harmlessly? That way, anyone who's involved in poaching & smuggling can be easily identified with a detector. If it's spread to people who aren't involved but come into contact innocently, they can still be of help to investigations. How does that sound? Is it feasible?

      Don't have to really make it spread, just make people think it will hurt them via social media:

      "20 ways radioactive rhino tusks have killed people. #10 will shock you."

  • Maybe as a last resort they could capture and sedate the remaining rhinos, cut off and dispose of their horns and then set them free? I guess they need their horns for protection, etc., but maybe as a last resort?? Then again, maybe not...

  • by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Saturday June 29, 2024 @09:17AM (#64587539)
    Make those things f^&*kin glow. Put enough nuclear material into them that it’ll make people sick when they grind them up for an “aphrodesiac”. That’ll end the market for rhino horn faster than you can say “stage 4 cancer”
    • by spitzak ( 4019 )

      I think it would actually work to just spread rumors/disinformation that the radiation is dangerous. The people taking rhino horn for ailments are not the smartest in the world.

      • by PPH ( 736903 )

        The people who shriek at any mention of the word "radiation" aren't that smart either. No matter what amount is being discussed. One can hope that the Venn diagrams overlap significantly. For the rhinos sake.

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