Some Rhinos in South Africa Have Radioactive Horns — a Bold Attempt to Save Them From Poachers
Published Aug. 7 2025, 8:45 a.m. ET
Scientists are injecting rhinos with radioactive chips in The Rhisotope Project
On the night of 2nd March, 2012, a gang of heartless men stepped into the barns of Kariega Game Reserve, a 10,000-hectare animal sanctuary tucked in the wilderness of Eastern Cape, South Africa. Their shoulders were loaded with dart guns, tranquilizer pistols, and machetes. Under the cover of darkness, they tiptoed to a thicket where Thandi and Themba were asleep. Then, they fired. Once the drug-induced bullets got lodged in their bodies, Thandi and Themba were jolted into an anesthetizing slumber.
Two rhinos knocking their horns
The men used axes and chainsaws to hack off their horns and sell them to fill their pockets. The following morning started with the ghastly cries and screeches of these rhinos, who were bleeding to death. Thandi survived the attack and is now mom to calves Mthetho and Siya, as BBC Earth also posted. However, not every rhino is as lucky as her. Themba, for instance, died a few days after the attack. To disrupt the chain of these illegal poaching episodes, researchers at the University of Witwatersrand initiated the Rhisotope Project, intending to make the rhino horns radioactive.