DNA evidence puts poachers in the spotlight

2 March 2007

New DNA tests on illegal ivory have revealed elephant-poaching hot spots. Now scientists hope police will be able to catch the crooks responsible and halt the decline of elephant numbers.

Antenna follows the trail...

Image: IFAW/D Willets

Despite an international ban, ivory trading has recently rocketed to an all-time high. Police want to catch the elephant poachers responsible, but say it's proving almost impossible because they don't know where the ivory's coming from. Now scientists could have the answer.

Poachers can earn up to $750 per kilogram of elephant ivory. The traders who buy it turn it into valuable products like these.

Image: IFAW

Researchers at the University of Washington have revealed prime poaching areas by looking at elephant DNA. Samuel Wasser and his team took samples of DNA from captured ivory, then compared them to reference samples from elephants across Africa.
These elephant populations have distinct genetic profiles, so the researchers could match the poached ivory to its origin.

Researchers compared ivory DNA samples with DNA taken from elephant poo across Africa.

Image: IFAW/S Cook

'We first tested our DNA technique on a huge 6.5-tonne haul of ivory seized in Singapore in 2002,' says Samuel. 'It was the biggest ivory confiscation since the ban in 1989.'
'Wildlife authorities first suspected that this ivory was poached from several different locations across Africa, and from up to 6500 elephants,' explains Samuel. 'But we discovered that the ivory samples were in fact all from the same region.'

Samuel Wasser, lead elephant DNA researcher, University of Washington

Image: Samuel Wasser

Samuel and his team read the DNA of 67 elephant tusks from the captured ivory. They first determined that these elephants had lived in savanna regions rather than forests, and subsequently found that it most closely matched the DNA from elephants in Zambia.
'Our findings forced the Zambian government to take responsibility for the poaching in their county. They fired their director of wildlife and increased the punishment for wildlife crime,' says Samuel.

DNA tests showed that the poached ivory came from the regions in and around Zambia circled on this map.

Image: Samuel Wasser

The test couldn't come at a better time for African elephants. Numbers of our largest land mammal have dropped dramatically in the last 30 years. Their natural habitat has been destroyed and they're still being killed for their ivory tusks. Any fresh evidence that helps stop poaching could turn falling numbers around.

Image: Stock.XCHNG/Ryan Arya

'Elephant populations are in a grim state and change is needed to ensure the survival of the species,' says Michael Wamithi from the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
'These new findings might just be the hard evidence that the international community needs to make the necessary tough decisions about elephant population security and management.'

Michael Wamithi, elephant conservationist, International Fund for Animal Welfare

Image: IFAW

Now Samuel wants the DNA test to help uncover other poaching problem spots. 'We are already starting to analyse other captured ivory samples. We hope that focusing on several large seizures will help us to understand what the big ivory dealers are up to,' he says.

Last year police captured more than 23,000 kilograms of African elephant ivory.

Image: IFAW

But that's not all. Samuel's team say their DNA technique can be developed for use with other endangered species such as the Asian elephant and rhino. The biggest challenge will be making a gene map that samples can be matched against.
'Eventually I hope that our research will help to shut down the illegal ivory trade, and curb other types of wildlife crime too,' says Samuel.

During the 1970s, half of the world's rhino population disappeared, mainly because of poaching for their horn.

Image: IFAW

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