GPS Installed In African Rhinos' Horns To Deter And Track Illegal Poaching

treehugger.com:

In addition to their thick, leathery hide and imposing stature, now a group of African rhinos have one more tool to help protect them against poachers -- GPS locating devices embedded directly into their horns. Five such animals in South Africa's Mafikeng Game Reserve were recently equipped with the small tracking chips which will help park officials monitor their movements and alert them to any possible threats from illegal hunting. Conservationists hope that by upgrading the animals with technology of the 21st century it may help ensure this endangered species will still be around at the end of it.

Read the whole story: treehugger.com

Comments

[BlackYowe]

01:47 AM on 10/28/2010

Brilliant, I love it!

[janejoy]

09:26 PM on 10/27/2010

Hope it works. Watching growing up rhino on Animal Planet was heartbreaking....the horns were filed down, but poachers still killed the mother rhino for the sliver of ivory..

[BlackYowe]

01:48 AM on 10/28/2010

It's not ivory, its very different and more like cow horn but dense.

[BebeLush]

05:49 PM on 10/27/2010

I honestly don't think it will do any good. Most poachers kill for the thrill - this will hardly distract them. Baby seals have been spray painted to ruin the value of their fur, and they were still killed.

[HooYoo2say]

01:07 AM on 10/28/2010

Well it may and it may not but does that mean there is no since in even trying? Because afterall not all the painted seals made it? The horn is the prize they are looking for as it brings alot of money on the black market. Where did you hear that most poachers kill for the thrill? These aren't American hunters. Poaching is usually done by poor locals for one reason......money. They sell the prize unlike Americans who have them stuffed and hung on the wall to stroke their egos.

[rbenjamin]

08:56 AM on 10/27/2010

The GPS is a great idea, but only if the authorities immediately know the animal is down. Poachers are likely to pull or disable the chip very quickly. Maybe the rhinos need to be fitted with security cameras as well. Not so much to ID the perps, but to see when the horizon line shifts from horizontal to vertical. Then the well armed and highly mobile rapid response team can get to the scene.

Still, all this is reactive. What's really needed is a proactive rhino technology to "tree spike" the horn, so it has little economic value. Removing the horn has that effect and may still be the best strategy in a bad world.

[HooYoo2say]

01:23 AM on 10/28/2010

An intact horn brings 50 times the amount of money on the black market. They won't be able to tell where in the horn the chip is imbedded without either x-raying it or breaking it into pieces. The computers can be programed to sound an alarm whenever a chip becomes damaged or goes beyond a designated parameter. It reminds of the endangered species of duck was found in some Canadian dude's freezer lol. He got quite the surprise when the Dept. of Interior and Federal Marshals showed up on his door step. A lot of these poachers are local tribesmen who do not know anything about chips and satellites in space. They probably spread the word around the area that these chips are capable of exploding and sending people to the moon and they'll believe it. lol

[rbenjamin]

05:41 PM on 10/30/2010

Don't assume the tribesman are ignorant. They are sophisticated enough to understand the market for rhino horn. The buyers are sophisticated too, and will likely engineer a way to detect and disable the device - and pass this on to the poachers. Very rapid response by well armed and highly mobile police is going to be a key part of making the chip an effective deterrent.

[HooYoo2say]

01:29 AM on 10/28/2010

If it works it will be better than sawing off the rhino's main defense mechanism.

[rbenjamin]

05:27 PM on 10/30/2010

The primary rhino predator is a human armed with an AK-47 or equivalent firearms. The horn isn't deterring the primary threat, it's luring them in. Sure, the horn protects against natural predators, but the trade off seems to favor removing the horn - or somehow spiking it so it has little or no economic value. Haven't heard of any technology that achieves the latter goal, but I hope somebody is working on it.

[piperson]

05:06 PM on 10/26/2010

Great idea, lojack for rhinos!