In South Africa, a research group is trying to make the rhino’s horn radioactive with nuclear technology. This project aims to make ivory trading much more difficult.
The project was initiated by the University of the Witwatersrand in collaboration with an American university, an Australian organization and the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency Rosatom. The idea is to dig a small hole in the horn of the rhino to slide in a radioactive fragment as small as a grain of sand. The process is painless for rhinos because there is no sensory nerve in this part of their anatomy.
Ryan Collier, CEO of Rosatom for Central and Southern Africa, explains how this technology should work trade in ivory harder: “Our goal is to reduce demand by making horns less attractive because people know it is potentially radioactive. And making its transportation much more complicated, with around 10,000 radiation detectors at airports and ports around the world, this will increase the chances of stopping human trafficking. ”
Check that the method is safe
But you must first make sure that this method is safe for the animal’s health. Two rhinos are playing guinea pigs right now. Professor James Larkin behind the idea addresses this first phase of the experiment: “We must be sure that what we put in the horn will not migrate and expose the internal organs to radioactivity, for this we will take blood and fecal samples in the coming weeks to check that there is no movement of the product from the horn to the body of the rhino “
If the results are decisive, Professor Larkin will announce at World Rhino Day in September. He dreams of opening this technology to conservation organizations across the continent and why not extend it to elephant tusks?
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