00:00And this might sound like something out of a science fiction movie, but it's real.
00:07Researchers in South Africa have injected radioactive material into the horns of rhinos
00:14as part of a research project aimed at reducing poaching.
00:17The idea is that radiation detectors already in place at national borders would detect
00:23the horns and help police arrest poachers and traffickers.
00:28But injecting rhinos with a radioactive material is no easy task.
00:33The animals are tranquilized before a hole is drilled into its horn and the nuclear material
00:39carefully inserted.
00:41So far, researchers in South Africa have injected 20 live rhinos with these isotopes with the
00:47help of veterinarians and nuclear experts.
00:51You get a thing like nuclear medicine nowadays, so it's not nuclear and radioactivity not
00:57only kills, but it also cures.
01:00So it's perfectly safe for the rhino, but it's not safe for the poacher because they
01:06can't move the horn.
01:07And this is really why it's all about, it's a magic idea.
01:13They hope the process can be replicated to save other wild species vulnerable to poaching,
01:18like elephants and pangolins.
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