"At least one animal a day is still being poached," James Larkin, a Wits University professor involved in the project, told the BBC.
"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."
Prof Larkin added that the pilot study, which involved 20 rhinos, confirmed that the radioactive material was "completely safe" for the animals.
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.
Jamie Joseph, a prominent South African rhino campaigner, said the Rhisotope Project was "innovative and much needed".
"It's not the endgame - only better legislation and political will can bring an end to the rhino crisis. But it will certainly help disrupt the flow of horns leaving the country and help experts better map out the illegal channels by providing reliable data," Ms Joseph, director of the Saving the Wild charity, told the BBC.
Each year since 2021, more than 400 rhinos have been poached in South Africa, conservation charity Save the Rhino says.
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."
"By doing so, we safeguard not just rhinos but a vital part of our natural heritage."
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.
White rhinos are considered threatened, while black rhinos are critically endangered.
RMRdesign on August 2nd, 2025 at 07:36 UTC »
I watched this documentary on a guy who I believe was running a rhino sanctuary or bred them. He had the most rhinos on the planet.
In order to keep his rhinos safe from poachers he cut off their horns. He stored all the clipped horns in a giant warehouse. Apparently rhino horns are like fingernails, they can be trimmed and grown back.
He was petitioning the government to allow him to sell the clipped rhino horns. The horns he had were valued at something crazy, $100+ million!
Long story short, the government shot down his request.
He made a point to say that there wouldn’t be poaching if people were allowed to breed and slaughter endangered animals for the things poachers were after.
And the documentary pointed out there are more big cats on farms in Texas than there are in the wild.
Ethnically it’s wrong to breed endangered species to be slaughtered for fur, but if it saves the wild species? It might be worth looking at again.
whatatwit on August 1st, 2025 at 20:24 UTC »
This is in the news today but has been bubbling up since James Larkin was given the idea by two project members who were injecting dyes and poisons into the horns as a deterrent to poaching.
Rhino horns turned radioactive to fight poachers in South Africa
[…]
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cyvn3264q01o
Using Radiation for Rhino Conservation
[…]And so all of that traveling came to a very shuddering halt, because here in South Africa, we had quite an extreme lockdown, certainly for the first couple of weeks. And so that very much gave me some time to sit and look at the walls and scratch my head. And then, you know, having—start think about this project. It came about because at around about 2019, I met two women who had a project going where they were injecting dyes and poison into the horn of the rhino. And they wanted to know, would it be possible to put radioactivity in it? I said no, because I'm quite keen to stay out of prison, I don't look good in orange. And so, from there, so I sort of said no, but it did, you know, plant the seeds of an idea in my mind because I understood, you know, I suppose having the knowledge about sort of what efforts globally have been done in nuclear security and what's been done to prevent nuclear terrorism. I realize that there's something like 11,000 installed radiation monitors around the world. And I thought, well, maybe if we could find the right level of activity, that wouldn't harm the animal but could set off a sensor that supports, or a hub or something like that, we might be onto something, because at the same time, you know, 99 percent of the world—he's very scared or at least misunderstands what radiation is. So that was my thought. Well, if we make something slightly radioactive, to them, people don't really want it. Because when you look at the background to the demand for horn, research has shown that it's, contrary to much Western popular belief, it's not as an aphrodisiac, nor actually is the biggest demand in traditional Chinese or Vietnamese medicine. But it is nowadays to give the horn, either carved or whole, as a gift to engender favor with your business colleagues, or to display on the mantelpiece in your house your fabulous wealth.[…]
https://www.nei.org/news/2024/fissionary-episode-2-james-larkin
(There is a full transcript of this audio if you prefer to read)