WASHINGTON - The complex science of DNA analysis is now helping protect elephants by showing police and conservationists the source of black-market ivory.
The price of ivory has nearly quadrupled in recent years, prompting poachers to kill more elephants to sell their tusks illegally. Protecting the giant beasts is complicated by the fact they spread across large parts of Africa and authorities are unsure where the illegal hunting is occurring.
But the seizure of more than six tons of ivory in Singapore in 2002 has helped solve part of that puzzle, according to a report by Samuel K. Wasser of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Wasser and colleagues took samples of the confiscated ivory and compared it with baseline DNA collected from elephants across the continent over several years. DNA is the internal blueprint for life that carries the genes that develop into each individual.
The comparison showed that the tusks seized from the black market came from elephants on Africa's broad savannas, primarily from a small area of southern Africa, most likely centered on Zambia, the researchers said.
Authorities had suspected the confiscated ivory had multiple origins, the researchers said, but "our results caused law enforcement to substantially narrow the area of origin and the trade routes being investigated."
The research was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, African Elephant Conservation Fund, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Center for Conservation Biology.
中文鏈接：
如今，DNA分析技術(shù)已經(jīng)成為了致力于大象保護工作者手中的一件新武器，人們可以通過運用此項技術(shù)來追查那些在黑市上被交易的象牙的原產(chǎn)地。
象牙的價格在最近幾年里幾乎上漲了300％，這使得那些偷獵者們瘋狂屠殺大象以便在非法倒賣象牙中牟利暴力。由于大象在非洲大陸上分布的區(qū)域十分遼闊，所以對大象的保護工作就顯得困難重重了，有關(guān)*往往無法確定那些非法盜獵活動到底是在哪里發(fā)生的。
瓦塞爾及其同事從2002年在新加坡沒收的6噸象牙上采集了相關(guān)的樣本，并把它們與此前幾年間在非洲大陸上收集到的大象基線DNA進行了比對。DNA堪稱是所有生命體體內(nèi)均具有的一張“藍圖”，正是在它的“指引”下各種不同的基因沿著特定的路線逐步發(fā)育成長，最后便形成了諸多互不相同的個體。DNA比對的結(jié)果表明，這些黑市上罰沒的象牙其實來自于生活在非洲大陸廣袤的熱帶大草原上的大象口中，其中最主要的“產(chǎn)地”便是位于南部非洲的一個狹小區(qū)域，而其中心點極有可能就在贊比亞的境內(nèi)。
有關(guān)方面曾經(jīng)懷疑這些被沒收的象牙來源于多個不同的地方，研究人員表示，但是“我們的研究結(jié)論使得執(zhí)法機構(gòu)大幅縮小了象牙原產(chǎn)地的范圍，而具體的交易路線則正處在調(diào)查之中。”這項研究工作得到了美國漁業(yè)與野生動植物管理部門、非洲大象保護基金會、國際動物福利基金會、戈登和貝蒂·摩爾基金會以及環(huán)保生物學研究中心的大力資助。
The price of ivory has nearly quadrupled in recent years, prompting poachers to kill more elephants to sell their tusks illegally. Protecting the giant beasts is complicated by the fact they spread across large parts of Africa and authorities are unsure where the illegal hunting is occurring.
But the seizure of more than six tons of ivory in Singapore in 2002 has helped solve part of that puzzle, according to a report by Samuel K. Wasser of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Wasser and colleagues took samples of the confiscated ivory and compared it with baseline DNA collected from elephants across the continent over several years. DNA is the internal blueprint for life that carries the genes that develop into each individual.
The comparison showed that the tusks seized from the black market came from elephants on Africa's broad savannas, primarily from a small area of southern Africa, most likely centered on Zambia, the researchers said.
Authorities had suspected the confiscated ivory had multiple origins, the researchers said, but "our results caused law enforcement to substantially narrow the area of origin and the trade routes being investigated."
The research was funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, African Elephant Conservation Fund, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Center for Conservation Biology.
中文鏈接：
如今，DNA分析技術(shù)已經(jīng)成為了致力于大象保護工作者手中的一件新武器，人們可以通過運用此項技術(shù)來追查那些在黑市上被交易的象牙的原產(chǎn)地。
象牙的價格在最近幾年里幾乎上漲了300％，這使得那些偷獵者們瘋狂屠殺大象以便在非法倒賣象牙中牟利暴力。由于大象在非洲大陸上分布的區(qū)域十分遼闊，所以對大象的保護工作就顯得困難重重了，有關(guān)*往往無法確定那些非法盜獵活動到底是在哪里發(fā)生的。
瓦塞爾及其同事從2002年在新加坡沒收的6噸象牙上采集了相關(guān)的樣本，并把它們與此前幾年間在非洲大陸上收集到的大象基線DNA進行了比對。DNA堪稱是所有生命體體內(nèi)均具有的一張“藍圖”，正是在它的“指引”下各種不同的基因沿著特定的路線逐步發(fā)育成長，最后便形成了諸多互不相同的個體。DNA比對的結(jié)果表明，這些黑市上罰沒的象牙其實來自于生活在非洲大陸廣袤的熱帶大草原上的大象口中，其中最主要的“產(chǎn)地”便是位于南部非洲的一個狹小區(qū)域，而其中心點極有可能就在贊比亞的境內(nèi)。
有關(guān)方面曾經(jīng)懷疑這些被沒收的象牙來源于多個不同的地方，研究人員表示，但是“我們的研究結(jié)論使得執(zhí)法機構(gòu)大幅縮小了象牙原產(chǎn)地的范圍，而具體的交易路線則正處在調(diào)查之中。”這項研究工作得到了美國漁業(yè)與野生動植物管理部門、非洲大象保護基金會、國際動物福利基金會、戈登和貝蒂·摩爾基金會以及環(huán)保生物學研究中心的大力資助。