WASHINGTON, July 2 (RIA Novosti) – Fallout from Cold War-era nuclear tests may not evoke many positive associations in the public consciousness, but a new study by US scientists has found that the radiation residue can be enlisted in the global fight against elephant and rhinoceros poaching.
By measuring levels of a radioactive isotope that seeped into tusks, horns and pelts due to above-ground nuclear tests throughout the world between 1945 and 1980, scientists can determine with considerable accuracy whether the biomaterial was legally harvested, according to a study published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“This could be used in specific cases of ivory seizures to determine when the ivory was obtained and thus whether it is legal,” University of Utah geochemist Thure Cerling, senior author of the study, said in a statement.
Hundreds of above-ground nuclear tests were conducted in the United States, the Soviet Union and elsewhere between 1945 and 1963, when the two Cold War foes together with Britain signed the Limited Test Ban Treaty, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.
France continued conducting nuclear tests into the 1970s, while China detonated its last above-ground nuclear bomb in 1980.
These tests deposited the radioactive isotope carbon-14 into animal tusks and teeth, and by measuring the levels of the fallout in the biomass, the study’s researchers were able to determine what year the animal died and therefore whether ivory tusks were harvested after a 1989 international treaty banning the practice.
With a cost of around $500 per sample, “the method is affordable and accessible to government and law enforcement agencies,” the study’s first author, geochemist Kevin Uno, said in a statement.
“It has immediate applications to fighting the illegal sale and trade of ivory that has led to the highest rate of poaching seen in decades,” Uno added.
Elephant poaching continues to flourish across the globe, and wildlife experts say that if the current rate continues African elephants will be extinct by the end of the century, National Geographic reported on its website.
