Speaker 1: Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works. Hey there,
Speaker 1: brain stuff Lauren vogelbamb Here. In seventeen, a South African
Speaker 1: court sentenced a traditional medicine healer to twenty eight years
Speaker 1: in prison for rhinoceros poaching. The man was convicted on
Speaker 1: forensic evidence from the Rhino DNA Indexing System or RHODUS,
Speaker 1: the DNA matching database that is successfully being used to
Speaker 1: connect horns, blood, and animal carcasses from specific crime scenes
Speaker 1: to the poachers responsible for rhinoceros killings and mutilations. According
Speaker 1: to a twenty eighteen article in the journal Current Biology,
Speaker 1: evidence from five thousand, eight hundred crime scenes has been
Speaker 1: submitted to RHOTUS since its inception. To date, the system
Speaker 1: has matched rhino DNA to more than a hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty criminal cases, nine of which have been successfully prosecuted.
Speaker 1: The hope is that the same genetic fingerprinting methods used
Speaker 1: to convict perpetrators of violent human on human crime will
Speaker 1: result in more poaching convictions, acting at once as a
Speaker 1: deterrent and a form of wildlife of preservation. In spite
Speaker 1: of rigid trade bands and strict enforcement, poaching of endangered
Speaker 1: white and black rhinoceroses in South Africa has increased exponentially,
Speaker 1: from just thirteen incidents in two thousand and seven to
Speaker 1: more than one thousand, two hundred. Wildlife trafficking is one
Speaker 1: of the biggest illegal black markets in the world, with
Speaker 1: the keratin rich rhino horn fetching upward of sixty thousand
Speaker 1: dollars per pound, making it more expensive than gold, diamonds
Speaker 1: or cocaine. In Vietnam and China, the traffic horn is
Speaker 1: sometimes thought to be a cure for cancer and impotence,
Speaker 1: and in some parts of Asia it's considered an aphrodisiac
Speaker 1: and a magical cure. All talisman's and curios made from
Speaker 1: the horn can be seen as status symbols and signs
Speaker 1: of wealth, and poaching is not limited to the national
Speaker 1: parks and wilds of African India. The astronomical black market
Speaker 1: price of rhino horn recently lord criminals to a zoo
Speaker 1: near Paris, France, where they broke in late at night,
Speaker 1: shot a rhino named Vince in the head and removed
Speaker 1: his horn with a chainsaw. This horrific act prompted a
Speaker 1: odd discussion about the future security of endangered animals in
Speaker 1: captivity trafficking is the backbone of the illegal rhino horn
Speaker 1: trade that makes poaching profitable. Through cooperation with police, arrangers
Speaker 1: and wildlife investigators, researchers on the Rhodas Team hope to
Speaker 1: use crime scene DNA to thwart crime syndicates that chip
Speaker 1: rhino contraband to foreign countries. Thus far, the Rhodus database
Speaker 1: has helped to convict poachers and traffickers in South Africa, Namibia, Kenya,
Speaker 1: and Swaziland. Today's episode is written by Carrie Tato and
Speaker 1: produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots
Speaker 1: of other depressing yet slightly hopeful topics, visit our home planet,
Speaker 1: pastaff works dot com.