Rhino horns made radioactive to foil traffickers in South African project | Endangered species
A South African University launched an anti -illegal hunting campaign to inject the rhinoceros horns with radioactive isotopes, which he said he could be detected by customs agents, but could be detected by customs agents.
In accordance with the collaborative project on Witwatersrand University, nuclear energy officials and protectionists, what they hoped would be the beginning of a mass injection of the declining rhinoceros population. Rhisotop Project.
Last year, about 20 rhinoceros were injected in a shelter in the attempts that opened the path of the launch of Thursday. Even at low levels, radioactive isotopes can be recognized by airports and radiation detectors at the boundaries, leading to the arrest of leakage hunters and smugglers.
Witwatersrand’s Radiation and Health Physics Unit said that the tests performed in the pilot study confirmed that radioactive material is not harmful to rhinans.
James Larkin, the scientific manager of the Rhisotop Project, said, özarleyen beyond scientific suspicion, we have shown that the process is completely safe for the animal and that it is effective in making the horn detectable through international Customs Nuclear Security Systems, ”he said.
“Even a single horn with radioactivity levels triggered the alarms that successfully triggered in radiation detectors, L Larskin said.
The tests also found that the horns could be detected in a full 40 -meter transport container.
The International Union of Nature Protects the Global Rhino population is estimated to be about 500,000 at the beginning of the 20th century, but it is now about 27,000 due to the demand for the rhinoceros in the secret market.
South Africa has the largest rhino population with an estimated 16,000, but each year, high levels of leakage hunting and about 500 rhinoceros are killed each year.
The university asked the owners of the private wildlife park and the national protection authorities to inject them.
