South African researchers putting radioactive material into rhino horns to try to stop poaching

[thewayne]

It's an interesting concept. They tranq the rhino, then drill a small hole and emplace nuclear material. Presumably afterwards they fill in the hole and try to match the color, much like a dentist.

The concept is that radiation detectors at border stations will detect the material, forcing a deeper search of things passing through. Not a bad idea. They say they've studied their test subjects extensively and this represents no health threat to the rhino. So that's good.

But what the article goes on to say is that there are doubters who say that the poachers have other ways of moving rhino horns out of the country without going through border stations. And, with this information being made public, won't the poachers start carrying Geiger counters and possibly cut the horns down to exclude the radioactive material? I'm curious if the material will spread through the horn, making it all radioactive.

But it's always a case of cat and mouse, or whack-a-mole, when it comes to conservationists/rangers trying to thwart poachers.

The demand for rhino horn is "medicinal" as it's a popular ingredient in a lot of alleged medicines and treatments.

https://apnews.com/article/south-africa-rhino-poaching-nuclear-technology-f5b116134bfa5065d6ddb5b5ccf436b8

Comments

[kaishin108]

It sure is a tough issue but right, not all smugglers use the borders. I hope they do catch a few though!

[silveradept]

An interesting situation. I almost wonder whether they can dins an isotope that will be fine for the rhinos to have but will spread through the horn and be either lethal or very damaging to the humans. Not that such a thing exists.

[thewayne]

One would think they're also experimenting with elephants.  There's also a risk that the poachers might get sloppy bringing it back into their 'base country', or perhaps the ground-up horn could be detectable.

[silveradept]

That would make sense, to get the elephants too.

[thewayne]

Of course, my favorite poaching stories are where the animal kills the poacher.  Just wish there were more of those.

[disneydream06]

And does it effect the rhino? :o
Hugs, Jon

[thewayne]

Supposedly it does not, they've been studying this for some time.  I'm sure the rhino is not fond of being shot with a tranq dart, but it's not like they're going to cooperate with getting a hole drilled in their horn!

[acelightning73]

Rhino horn is used in "traditional" asian medicines to improve male sexual performance. And you don't want any kind of radioactive material anywhere near what needs to perform better.

How about tagging the rhino horns with the kind of tags that go off when you walk out of the store through the white "gates"? And tag elephant tusks with the same thing.

[thewayne]

Wouldn't be easy to detect at range, you're still going to have to implant it inside the horn.

[gingeriana]

not educated enough in this
yet, immediately and strongly doubt that radiation implanted inside a live body can have no bad influence on this body

[ndrosen]

If I am not mistaken, the rhino’s horn is just keratin, like my fingernails, not live flesh. Beyond that it’s a question of how much of which radioisotopes are implanted, and how far the radioactive material is from the actual flesh of the rhino, where reproducing cells could potentially be made cancerous. The level of exposure might or might not be too small to be of any serious concern.

[thewayne]

One of the things about radiation is that it's important to differentiate between the kinds that are ionizing and those that are not.  IIRC, ionizing radiation is the type that is very harmful to people, I'm certain that they are using the type that is not.  Non-ionizing?  Your skin bounces tons of those particles off every day.