After six years of research and a successful trial period, a South African program that hopes to curb rhino poaching by inserting radioactive material into their horns is now in operation.

While conservation efforts have seen rhino populations in South Africa and other parts of their range begin to bounce back from the brink of extinction, poaching is still very much a problem. In 2024, 420 rhinos were illegally killed in South Africa – a 15 percent decrease from the previous year, but still very much a threat to their recovery.

What the poachers are usually after are the rhinos’ horns , primarily driven by a demand for their use in traditional medicines and as a marker of social status.

That’s where the Rhisotope Project comes in. In a creative new approach to tackling the rhino po

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