People continue to steal Arizona's iconic saguaro cactuses, and a national park in Southern Arizona is turning to high-tech measures to try and stop the thefts.
Saguaro National Park, which has districts east and west of the Tucson area, continues to implant microchips in its namesake cactuses, Cronkite News reported last month. (Arizona Highways reported in 2015 that the park was using the technology.)
While it isn't feasible to microchip each of the park's 1.9 million saguaros, the park said it spent $3,000 to implant the chips in 1,000 cactuses located in perimeter areas most accessible to park visitors. The chips do not broadcast a signal, but a special device can scan the cactus and tell if it was stolen, officials said.
The park is hopeful the technology will help deter thieves, who sometimes can fetch as much as $100 a foot for a stolen saguaro. It's illegal to disturb plants and animals in any national park, but Arizona also outlaws the removal of saguaros from state or private land without a permit.
Saguaro National Park isn't the only Arizona park using high-tech means to stop theft, Cronkite News reported. At Petrified Forest National Park near Holbrook, a photo-mapping system is used to keep visitors from stealing pieces of petrified wood.