{"id":343951,"date":"2025-08-04T18:09:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T12:39:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=343951"},"modified":"2025-08-04T18:09:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T12:39:28","slug":"rhisotope-project-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/rhisotope-project-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Rhisotope Project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News:<\/strong> A South African university launched an anti-poaching campaign with a unique approach \u2013 injecting radioactive isotopes into rhino horns.<\/p>\n<h2>About Rhisotope Project<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_343952\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-343952\" style=\"width: 546px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-343952\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Source-IAEA.jpg?resize=546%2C362&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"546\" height=\"362\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Source-IAEA.jpg?resize=300%2C199&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Source-IAEA.jpg?resize=1024%2C678&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Source-IAEA.jpg?resize=768%2C509&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Source-IAEA.jpg?w=1323&amp;ssl=1 1323w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 546px) 100vw, 546px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-343952\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; IAEA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a pioneering conservation initiative begun in <strong>South Africa in 2021<\/strong>, aiming to <strong>combat rhino poaching <\/strong>by injecting safe, traceable amounts of <strong>radioactive isotopes into live rhinoceros horns.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Launched by:<\/strong> <strong>University of the Witwatersrand<\/strong>, with support of the International Atomic Energy Agency (<strong>IAEA<\/strong>)<\/li>\n<li><strong>Objective:<\/strong> The Project aims at safely <strong>inserting radioactive isotopes<\/strong> into rhino horns to deter poachers and <strong>stop smuggling<\/strong> by making the horns <strong>detectable at international borders<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Working\/Procedure<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Injection:<\/strong> A small <strong>hole<\/strong> is drilled in the horn and <strong>Radioisotope<\/strong> is inserted into it.\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>radioactive isotopes or radioisotopes<\/strong> are the <strong>unstable<\/strong> form of an element that <strong>emit radiation <\/strong>to transform into a more stable form.<\/li>\n<li>The radiation can be <strong>traced<\/strong>, and typically causes changes in the substance it falls upon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Detection:<\/strong> The tests conducted under the Project confirmed that individual horns could be <strong>detected<\/strong> inside full <strong>40-foot shipping containers <\/strong>by radiation portal monitors (RPMs) already deployed at borders, ports, and airports worldwide.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Safety:<\/strong> The procedure, according to the researchers, has proven to <strong>show no harm to the rhinos<\/strong> themselves, while making the horn \u201cuseless\u201d and \u201cpoisonous\u201d to humans.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Poaching Crisis<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>South Africa<\/strong> has the <strong>largest population of rhinos<\/strong> with an estimated <strong>16,000<\/strong> but the country experiences high levels of poaching with about <strong>500 rhinos killed for their horns every year<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>According to the IUCN, the <strong>global rhino population<\/strong> was estimated to be about <strong>500,000 at the start of the 20th century<\/strong>. It has since <strong>dwindled to 27,000, <\/strong>owing to the burgeoning demand for rhino horns.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Other Projects to Save Rhino<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Dehorning of Rhinos:<\/strong> The project involves the removal of horns of Rhino\u2019s in order to deter poaching.\n<ul>\n<li>A <strong>2024 study<\/strong> showed that dehorning rhinos <strong>reduced poaching by 78 per cent<\/strong> over seven years on eight reserves, while another study established that this measure <strong>impacted<\/strong> their <strong>ability to socialize<\/strong> with their peers and noted <strong>reductions in the sizes of their home ranges<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: A South African university launched an anti-poaching campaign with a unique approach \u2013 injecting radioactive isotopes into rhino horns. About Rhisotope Project It is a pioneering conservation initiative begun in South Africa in 2021, aiming to combat rhino poaching by injecting safe, traceable amounts of radioactive isotopes into live rhinoceros horns. Launched by: University&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/rhisotope-project-2\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Rhisotope Project<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,4182,12039,11834],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-343951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-environment","category-knolls","category-species-in-news","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343951\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}