Elephant tusk DNA reveals ivory trafficking networks

Reuters Videos
3 年前

DNA from elephant tusks is helping

to uncover ivory trafficking networks

Researchers conducted tests on over

4,000 tusks from seized ivory shipments

The DNA reveals family ties

among African elephants

which can be used to track

and identify poaching areas

SAMUEL WASSER, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON BIOLOGIST AND LEAD AUTHOR OF STUDY, SAYING:"These transnational criminal organizations we're trying to get - they are the key. Because once the ivory leaves their hands and gets out of Africa, it becomes so difficult to trace but if they've been operating for years and this whole network of poachers and middlemen below them are all feeding their tusks up to the same guy - if you take him out, then there's nobody to buy the tusks from the poachers, and so this is really the crux of this work."

Wasser said the largest amount of ivory

is now being smuggled out of Uganda

through the Mombasa seaport

with ports in Kenya and

Nigeria also often used

He added that the ports used by

smugglers have changed over time