DNA technology is helping customs police track contraband tusks to within kilometers of their place of origin. Researchers at the University of Washington Center for Animal Conservation are mapping tusk DNA to put an end to poaching, a practice that is threatening the African elephant. UW's Sam Wasser devised a technique that can track the origins of tusks to within 300 kilometers by comparing 16 microsatellite DNA patterns against a reference map of elephant genotypes across the continent. This information has enabled law enforcement to locate not just the poachers doing the killing but the cartels that bankroll the operations. The hope is that demonstrating how large these cartels actually are will prompt harsher penalties for the culprits than have been dispensed so far.
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Bandit tusks. Nat Biotechnol 36, 1032 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1118-1032a
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1118-1032a
