Idly flipping through posts on Instagram, as one does, and looking at the preponderance of mediocrity that is published, my eye caught sight of an interesting post – nuclear science and technology to save a species! Now that was worth looking at.
After an email or two, this led me to ‘The Rhisotope Project’, and a very interesting 40-minute interview with the mastermind behind the project – Professor James Larkin, Professor of Nuclear Physics, who previously spent his time and efforts in the realm of monitoring and combatting nuclear terrorism! Now he’s involved in researching the use of radioactive isotopes in combating rhino poaching!
Clearly a humble man, the Professor soon made me feel at ease, albeit I was initially a little out of my depth, what with radioactivity, isotopes, half-lives, detection, and more being thrown at me. We soon settled into a healthy two-way conversation about this incredible project James is involved in.
What he has done, is harness the numerous skills-sets that he has within the nuclear physics world and packaged them, to offer his abilities and knowledge in an attempt to come up with a solution to the runaway poaching of rhino. We all know what that status is – bleak and critical.
The project started in earnest 18 months ago, although the idea was a long-term dream. The dream was to put small ‘bits’ of radioactive isotope into rhino horn to combat poaching – simple really. Not so – numerous teams from all over the world have offered their services to James, in an effort to perfect the dosage and application of radioactive isotopes into rhino horns, whilst ensuring that no harm comes to the rhino. The firm belief is that rhino horns need to stay on rhinos – “we don’t want the Big 5 ½ , we want the Big 5”!
The hypothesis is that by using radioactive isotopes, the end users of rhino horn poaching will be deterred because of the fear of anything potentially radioactive. Smugglers will be deterred because of the shift in the ‘reward : risk ratio’ firmly to the side of the law. This is because there is already a massive network of 11 000+ monitors installed around the world at various portals, as well as staff that carry pager monitors, dogs and more, all concentrating on monitoring and passively working to detect any movement of radioactive material. The project will piggyback on these systems, and so any rhino horn, that has a radioactive isotope inserted in the horn, would be subject to detection by these passive systems. That is a huge risk for the perpetrators of poaching because if they are caught with a ‘radioactive horn’, current international legal protocols, allow prosecution for terrorism offences as well!
Essentially the isotope acts as a tracking system, which is very difficult to remove from the horn. One basically must demolish the horn to remove the isotope (if you can find it!), which obviously will decrease the value of the horn. So, there are three matters to consider as a poacher/trader of the horn: decrease in value, possibility of detection, and if consumed, the probability of getting very ill, sterility and loss of libido too. For those crime syndicates there is also the likelihood that horns are ‘batched’ or ‘bundled’ with other contraband, and so the risk of that illicit package being detected increases, courtesy of the isotope.
Of course, the fundamental caveat in this whole project is to ensure that there is absolutely no harm that may befall the rhino, with the introduction of the isotope to the horn. Collaboration with the Nuclear Energy Corporation of South Africa (Necsa)and teams from all over the world, especially in the United States and Australia, have researched this extensively and have concluded that: firstly, there is no chance of possible migration of the isotope into the animals body (it remains in the horn), and secondly, the research into the half-life of the isotope to be used in this project has quantified and certified, that the radiation level of the isotope is so low that it will in no way harm the animal. In fact, the isotope will have an effective 5-year lifespan, whereupon it would need to be replaced. The vision of project is that if enough isotopes are out in the wild, the risk of a poacher taking a chance with a rhino horn will be high enough to effectively decrease the chance of poaching, even if the replacement program lags behind schedule.
It must be pointed out that this project is still in its research stage. Other efforts and attempts to reduce poaching via various means often have not considered the consequences of their actions that their efforts impose on the animals, albeit it with the wellbeing of the rhino at heart. Dehorning for example, which is a debateable action, possibly has negative effects on the inherent rhino genetic make-up – they are needed to fight, joust and protect – and without them those activities or actions cannot be concluded as nature would have them concluded. As James stated, “A rhinos horn deserves to remain on the snout of a rhino, that is its evolutionary place; let’s try and keep it there!”
The positive response from organisations, research institutions, universities, and ‘Joe-public’ from all over the world, has been incredible, and has given the project much momentum and traction. Everyone wants to get involved of their own free will, in making sure that this project will succeed and will work, to finally put the brakes on the savagery of rhino poaching, as a start.
James, although pioneering this research, pays tribute to his team that he has surrounded himself with. All contribute to the social media, anthropological, educational, and social upliftment spheres of the project. Target date for the initial introduction to the wild is March 2023 – but there are still a number of factors out of the project teams’ control, that have to fall into place for that to happen.
This is such an exciting project and more information for interested parties, donors and the like, can be obtained from Jessica Babich at jessica@wildrevolution.co.za.
We wish James well and look forward to the day that he can stand tall and proud, and state that they have finally got the isotope into the wild!
