Scientists in South Africa are making rhino horns radioactive to fight poaching
Under the collaborative project involving the University of the Witwatersrand, nuclear energy officials and conservationists, five rhinos were injected in what the university hopes will be the start of a mass injection of the declining rhino population.
They're calling it the Rhisotope Project.
Last year, about 20 rhinos at a sanctuary were injected with isotopes in trials that paved the way for Thursday's launch. The radioactive isotopes even at low levels can be recognized by radiation detectors at airports and borders, leading to the arrest of poachers and traffickers.
Researchers at Witwatersrand's Radiation and Health Physics Unit say that tests conducted in the pilot study confirmed that the radioactive material was not harmful to the rhinos.
'We have demonstrated, beyond scientific doubt, that the process is completely safe for the animal and effective in making the horn detectable through international customs nuclear security systems,' said James Larkin, chief scientific officer at the Rhisotope Project.
'Even a single horn with significantly lower levels of radioactivity than what will be used in practice successfully triggered alarms in radiation detectors,' said Larkin.
The tests also found that horns could be detected inside full 40-foot shipping containers, he said.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature estimates that the global rhino population stood at around 500,000 at the beginning of the 20th century but has now declined to around 27,000 due to continued demand for rhino horns on the black market.
South Africa has the largest population of rhinos with an estimated 16,000 but the country experiences high levels of poaching with about 500 rhinos killed for their horns every year.
The university has urged private wildlife park owners and national conservation authorities to have their rhinos injected.
___
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
Associated Press, The Associated Press
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
3 hours ago
- CBS News
Rare Barbary lion cubs born at Czech zoo are part of a plan to return the breed to the wild. See photos of their public debut.
Four Barbary lion cubs recently made their public debut at a Czech zoo that's working to eventually reintroduce the breed to its native habitat decades after it went extinct in the wild. The three females and one male were seen playing in their outdoor enclosure at Dvůr Králové Safari Park on Wednesday, enjoying themselves under the watchful eyes of their parents, Khalila and Bart. The cubs were born in early January and were first spotted out in the lion pavilion in April. But their home will change soon. As part of an international endangered species program that coordinates efforts for their survival in captivity, the cubs will be sent to other participating parks, including the Beersheba zoo in Israel. Chances are that might not be the end of the story for the animal. Dvůr Králové Deputy Director Jaroslav Hyjánek said that while preliminary steps have been taken for a possible reintroduction of the Barbary lion into its natural habitat, it's still a "far distant future." The majestic member of the Northern lion subspecies, the Barbary lion once roamed freely its native northern Africa, including the Atlas Mountains. A symbol of strength, they were almost completely wiped out due to human activities. Many were killed by gladiators in Roman times, while overhunting and a loss of habitat contributed to their extinction later. The last known photo of a wild lion was taken in 1925, while the last individual was killed in 1942. It's believed the last small populations went extinct in the wild in the middle of the 1960s. Fewer than 200 Barbary lions are currently estimated to live in captivity. These aren't the first Barbary cubs to be born at the Dvůr Králové Safari Park. Two cubs were born in July 2021, three in July 2020 and two in May 2019, all to mom Khalila who made her debut at the zoo in 2018. The licensed breeding of the lions is "guided by the recommendations of the coordinator of the European Conservation Programme" on suitable mates and where to place cubs for the highest possible genetic diversity, the park said. "These steps are crucial for the survival of the species in the future," the zoo said. Hyjánek said that after initial talks with Moroccan authorities, who have not rejected the idea of their reintroduction, a conference of experts has been planned to take place in Morocco late this year or early 2026 to decide whether it would make sense to go ahead with such a plan in one of the national parks in the Atlas Mountains. Any reintroduction would face numerous bureaucratic and other obstacles. Since the lion has not been present in the environment for such a long time, the plans would have to ensure their protection, a sufficient prey population and cooperation and approval from local communities. Hyjánek said such a move is still worth trying if it turns out to be sustainable. "It's important to have such a vision for any animal," he said. "Without it, the existence of zoos wouldn't make sense."
Gizmodo
5 hours ago
- Gizmodo
Record-Setting Tarantulas Boast Longest Sex Organs to Avoid Getting Eaten by Females
Researchers have just identified four new species of tarantulas whose genitals are so long they had to make a new biological classification for them. Meet the Satyrex ferox, S. arabicus, S. somalicus, and S. speciosus. They hail from the Arabian Peninsula and the Horn of Africa and are so different from their closest relatives—on both the morphological and molecular level—that the team created a new genus for them, Satyrex. 'The genus name is a combination of Satyr, a part-man, part-beast entity from Greek mythology known for his exceptionally large genitals, and the Latin rēx, meaning king,' the researchers wrote in a study published last month in the journal ZooKeys. Like Satyrs, the males of the four new species, as well as a fifth Satyrex species, have the longest known palps of all tarantulas. Palps are limbs that male spiders use to, among other things, transfer sperm while mating. Technically, palps are not penises but rather secondary sex organs. Satyrex ferox, whose legspan is around 5.5 inches (14 centimeters), has male palps up to 2 inches long (5 cm). For comparison, that's almost as long as its longest legs. Since male spiders, unlike male humans, probably don't go around comparing their nether regions to each other, what's the point of adorning such lengthy junk? For S. ferox specifically, 'we have tentatively suggested that the long palps might allow the male to keep a safer distance during mating and help him avoid being attacked and devoured by the highly aggressive female,' Alireza Zamani, lead author of the study and an arachnologist from the University of Turku, said in a Pensoft blog post (Pensoft published ZooKeys). Yes, you read that right. View this post on Instagram'This species is highly defensive. At the slightest disturbance, it raises its front legs in a threat posture and produces a loud hissing sound by rubbing specialized hairs on the basal segments of the front legs against each other,' Zamani added. In fact, ferox means 'fierce.' In other words, Zamani and colleagues suggest S. ferox may have evolved to have such long genitals because it allows them to have sex without getting eaten by their partner. Talk about a love bite. In comparison, the other species' names are more boring. Researchers named S. speciosus for their beautiful colors and S. arabicus and S. somalicus for their regions of origin. According to the study, the new genus also includes a fifth Satyrex—a known species previously classified in the genus Monocentropus, now called S. longimanus. 'The much longer palps of S. longimanus and the four newly described species were among the primary characters that led us to establish a new genus for these spiders, rather than place them in Monocentropus,' Zamani concludes. 'So yes, at least in tarantula taxonomy, it seems that size really does matter.'
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Gorillas seek out old female friends even after years apart
The relationships built up between female mountain gorillas are more important than previously understood, new research from Rwanda suggests. It shows that when one of these social great apes moves into a new group, she will seek out and join another female she already knows. Scientists based the research on 20 years of data covering multiple groups of gorillas in Volcanoes National Park, in Rwanda. The scientists found that even when two females had been apart for many years, a newly arrived gorilla would still try to join a female she had formed a previous connection with. The findings, published in the Royal Society Journal Proceedings B, show how important the relationship between two individual females is in gorilla society. "Scientifically, I don't know if I can talk about 'friendship'," explained lead researcher Victoire Martignac, a PhD researcher form the University of Zurich. "But we're showing here that these same sex relationships really matter." Moving into different groups is key in shaping the animals' social structure. It's something that both males and females do - females will sometimes move several times throughout their lives. This dispersal, as it's known, plays a role in avoiding inbreeding, spreading gene diversity and shaping social relationships. "In the wild it is very important," explained Ms Martignac. "But it's extremely hard to study, because once individuals leave a group, it's hard to keep track of them." Working in partnership with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund, at a field site that has been monitored since 1967, Ms Martignac and her colleagues were able to track those movements. Poring through decades of information on the animals' lives, the scientists followed the "dispersals" of 56 female mountain gorillas - examining which new group they chose to join and why. The gorillas avoided groups that had males they were likely to be related to, but the presence of females they knew also "mattered a lot", Ms Martignac explained. The females gravitated towards their "friends", even if the animals had been apart for many years. They would often gravitate to a group with females they had grown up with, even if that was many years ago. They also sought out individuals with whom they had made a social connection - perhaps played and interacted with - recently. Ms Martignac explained that the gorillas would invest in these relationships because they deliver key social benefits. "New arrivals usually start at the bottom of the social hierarchy," she said. "Resident females can be pretty aggressive towards them, because they're potentially a competitor." Moving around is something that is also crucial in shaping human society. And the researchers say that studying its roots in other great apes can shed light on the evolutionary driving forces behind it. "Movement is a huge part of the way we live," said Ms Martignac. "But those decisions do not fossilise. "So we look at them in our closest evolutionary cousins." This new insight into gorillas' social lives, she added, "reframes how we think of female-female social relationships". "They're much more important to these animals than we used to think."
