South African scientists on Tuesday injected radioactive material into live rhino horns to make them easier to detect at border posts, in a pioneering project aimed at curbing poaching. The country is home to the vast majority of the world’s rhinos and is therefore a hotspot for poaching due to demand from Asia, where the horns are used in traditional medicine for their purported therapeutic effects.

In the Limpopo Rhino Sanctuary in the Waterberg region in the north-east of the country, a few pachyderms graze on the low savannah. James Larkin, director of radiation physics at the University of the Witwatersrand, who spearheaded the initiative, told AFP that he inserted “two tiny little radioactive chips into the horn” while injecting a radioisotope into one of the horns of large animals.

Nithaya Chetty, professor and dean of the faculty of science at the same university, added that the radioactive material “would render the horn useless… in fact, poisonous for human consumption.” Larkin said the dusty rhino, which was sedated and crouched on the ground, did not feel any pain. The dose of radioactive material, he said, was so low that it did not affect the animal’s health or the environment in any way.

In February, the Ministry of Environment announced that 499 giant mammals were killed in 2023, most of them in state parks, despite the government’s efforts to combat illegal trade. This is 11 percent more than in 2022.

Twenty live rhinos in total will be part of the Rhiosotop pilot project, which will see them injected with a dose “strong enough to set off detectors around the world” at international border posts originally set up “to prevent nuclear terrorism.” Larkin said, wearing a green khaki hat and shirt.

Border guards often have portable radiation detectors that can detect contraband, in addition to thousands of radiation detectors installed at ports and airports, the researchers said.

“best idea”

Rhino horns are in high demand on black markets, where the price per weight rivals the prices of gold and cocaine. Dehorning and poisoning rhinos’ horns has not deterred poachers, according to the sanctuary’s founder, Arrie Van Deventer.

“Maybe this is what will stop poaching,” said the tall, thin conservationist. “This is the best idea I’ve ever heard.”

While wildebeest, warthogs and giraffes roamed the vast reserve, more than a dozen team members performed a delicate procedure on another rhino. Larkin meticulously drilled a small hole in the horn, added the radioisotope and then sprayed 11,000 microdots all over the horn. The International Rhino Foundation estimates that there are about 15,000 rhinos in the southern African country.

The project’s final phase will be to continue providing care for the animal under “appropriate scientific protocol and ethical protocol,” said a cheerful Jessica Babich, the project’s chief operating officer. The team would then take more blood samples to ensure effective protection of the rhinos. According to Larkin, the material will last five years per antler, which is cheaper than cutting a horn every 18 months.