Forensic science is getting better every year, and even animal conservationists are harnessing it to stop illegal poaching and trading. In findings published today in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, University of Washington scientists outline their work with the U.S. Department of Homeland of Security to uncover an international network of elephant ivory traffickers—all thanks to DNA testing.
The new study, which tested more than 4,000 African elephant tusks seized over 17 years in 12 African nations, shows the grave extent of illegal ivory trading across the world. But it also provides some insights that could help authorities shut down these trade networks and bolster efforts to protect elephant species in Africa.
“These methods are showing us that a handful of networks are behind a majority of smuggled ivory, and that the connections between these networks are deeper than even our previous research showed,” Samuel Wasser, a UW biologist who led the new study, said in a statement.
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Tusks from an ivory seizure in 2015 in Singapore after they have been sorted into pairs by the process developed by Wasser and his team.
Center for Environmental Forensic Science/University of WashingtonWasser and his team aren’t new to this work—they released findings in 2018 that used genetic testing to identify tusks that came from the same elephant but were separated and smuggled into different shipments before being seized. Armed with the knowledge of how shipments in different parts of the world came from the same origin point, authorities were able to pin down popular illegal trade routes involving three African ports (Mombasa, Kenya; Entebbe, Uganda; and Lomé, Togo.)
The new study is a significant step up from there. Wasser and his team used genetic testing to identify not just if tusks came from the same elephant, but also if they came from the same family of elephants—be they parents and offspring, siblings, half-siblings, or other relationships.
Through testing of more than 4,320 tusks from 49 shipments seized from 2002 to 2019, the team showed that most poachers are hunting the same elephant populations year after year, and that it’s likely the same handful of cartel networks that are acquiring and smuggling these tusks out of Africa.
Wasser (left) and his team sample ivory from tusks in Malaysia in 2014.
Malaysia Department of National ParksA deeper analysis also showed how these cartels shifted the bulk of their operations from Tanzania in the early 2000s to Kenya and Uganda. Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo are also newer hotspots for ivory smuggling, and there’s been a new shift of illegal exports from Togo to Nigeria.
Wasser expects the new data to help make it easier to prosecute illegal ivory traders and nail down their responsibility for a broader array of seizures, which would lead to more severe penalties.
“By linking individual seizures, we’re laying out whole smuggling networks that are trying to get these tusks off the continent,” said Wasser.
