Elephant poaching in Africa is driving the species to extinction, but researchers have uncovered a way to use DNA evidence from illegal ivory to track down offending poachers.
Recent findings reveal over the past decades, the majority of illegal ivory has come from two areas of Africa, the University of Washington reported. A devastating 50,000 African elephants are being killed every year out of a population consisting of only 500,000 animals. If the illegal slaughtering of these elephants continues, they will most likely be wiped out in the near future.
"Africa is a huge continent, and poaching is occurring everywhere. When you look at it that way it seems like a daunting task to tackle this problem," said lead researcher and mastermind biologist Samuel Wasser, of the University of Washington. "But when you look at large ivory seizures, which represent 70 percent of illegal ivory by weight, you get a different picture."
Wasser used DNA from elephant dung, tissue, and hair collected across the African continent to create a "genetic map" of elephant populations. He then developed a method that allowed him to extract DNA from ivory to determine the elephant's population of origin. The groundbreaking new method could pinpoint the primary areas in which poaching occurs, allowing officials to target illegal trafficking at its source.
"Understanding that vast amounts of this major transnational trade is focused on two primary areas makes it possible to focus law enforcement on those areas and eliminate the largest amount of illegal killing," Wasser said.
The researchers used the new method to analyze 28 major ivory seizures made between 1996 and 2014, each consisting of over half a ton of contraband. These samples included 61 percent of all major seizures that occurred between 2012 and 2014. They found all but one of these seizures were concentrated in four areas, and most made since 2006 were concentrated in only two.
The findings revealed over 85 percent of the ivory from forest elephants seized between 2006 and 2014 originated in the central African Tridom protected ecosystem. Over 85 percent of savanna elephant ivory seized between 2006 and 2014 was traced to East Africa, and was mainly from the Selous Game Reserve in southeastern Tanzania and the Niassa Reserve in northern Mozambique. The team also found savanna elephant poaching hotspots have moved northwards towards the Ruaha National Park and Rungwa Game Reserve in Tanzania. One of the largest seizures was found to contain ivory from both hotspots, suggesting dealers from the two regions are connected.
Currently, most efforts to reduce elephant poaching have target demand rather than supply. On June 19, the U.S. government will use a giant machine to crush one ton of ivory in Times Square, New York City, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reported. A similar event took place in Denver, Colorado, on November 14, 2013, in which a whopping six tons of elephant ivory was destroyed. The crushes work to send a message that the U.S. will not tolerate the illegal trade of ivory, and to educate consumers and urge them not to contribute to the devastating poaching problem. Despite these efforts, Wasser and his team are working to do everything possible to fight elephant poaching and save the dying population of iconic animals.
"When you're losing a tenth of the population a year, you have to do something more urgent -- nail down where the major killing is happening and stop it at the source," Wasser said. "Hopefully our results will force the primary source countries to accept more responsibility for their part in this illegal trade, encourage the international community to work closely with these countries to contain the poaching, and these actions will choke the criminal networks that enable this transnational organized crime to operate."
Wasser's findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Science.
