Jared Goyette and Bobby Bascomb reported on an audacious new plan to save the rhinos: poison them.

• The low number of living rhinos means that they’re expensive for zoos and reserves. Each one can cost over $20,000.
• But poachers can get $200,000 for their horns.
• To protect their investments zoos buy insurance – costing around $700 a year per rhino – against poaching.
• In order to secure this insurance one company requires that the Rhinos horns be poisoned.
• By injecting poison deep into the horn of the rhino, anybody who later ingests it after it is poached will fall violently ill.
• The hope is that if enough of the market becomes worried about poisoning, demand for rhino horns will drop.
• There are enough rhinos that it’s not possible to poison all their horns – but if a majority are that should be enough to dissuade buyers.
• In order to spread this fear, the injection of poison into rhino horns is usually done in public with a large audience, in order to disseminate the message.
• As the horns grow quickly, the poison has to be re-injected into the horns every four years.

Read about those behind the idea, its effectiveness, why the South African government doesn’t really believe in it, and more over here.

Source: PRI

Via: Marginal Revolution