AN expert who has spearheaded work to protect the Scottish wildcat has developed a new system to turn the tables on poachers by fitting rhinos with satellite tracking collars and spy cameras implanted into their horns.
The system incorporates a video camera, GPS, and a 24-hour heart-rate monitor that triggers an alarm the moment a rhino is shot.
Poachers caught in the trap will have no time to escape as park rangers are helicoptered to the scene of the crime within minutes.
Video footage captured by the miniature horn camera will then provide the evidence needed to secure a conviction.
The hope is that the technology, which could be trialled in South Africa in the next six to nine months, will act as an effective deterrent against out-of-control rhino poaching. It could also be adapted for other hunted animals, including elephants and tigers.
Dr Paul O'Donoghue, who heads up the Scottish Wildcat Haven project in the Highlands, developed the Protect RAPID (Real-time Anti Poaching Intelligence Device) system.
He said: "Currently a rhino is butchered every six hours in Africa. The issues are many, but there's far too much money at stake to believe that legislation alone can make the difference.
"We had to find a way to protect these animals effectively in the field; the killing has to be stopped.
"With this device, the heart-rate monitor triggers the alarm the instant a poaching event occurs, pin-pointing the location within a few metres so that rangers can be on the scene via helicopter or truck within minutes, leaving poachers no time to harvest the valuable parts of an animal or make good an escape.
"You can't outrun a helicopter - the Protect RAPID renders poaching a pointless exercise."
Since 2007, rhino poaching has increased by more than 9,000-fold in South Africa alone.
Patrolling every part of the vast landscapes where rhinos live is effectively impossible, meaning poachers often operate with no risk of being caught.
Dr O'Donoghue, a lecturer in biological sciences at the University of Chester, developed the anti-poaching system for the non-profit conservation organisation Protect which plans to conduct the first trials next year.
A research paper outlining the concept appears in the Journal of Applied Ecology.
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