 |
| The endangered Sumatran rhinoceros. Picture: AP |
THE illegal trafficking of wildlife is driving some species to near extinction. Now a team based at Edinburgh Zoo is using forensics straight out of a top US crime drama to help halt the sickening trade.
At the heart of Edinburgh Zoo, not far from the rhino enclosure, sits a gleaming white lab that could have come straight from one of the CSI: Crime Scene Investigation TV shows. Like its fictional counterpart, it contains equipment for DNA profiling and sequencing and its elite scientists are at the heart of the fight against crime. But the victims Dr Rob Ogden and his colleague Dr Ross McEwing are faced with are not human, they are animals, and the $20bn global racket they are trying to halt involves the trafficking not of arms or drugs, but wildlife.
So lucrative is the market for exotic animals, and so low the risk of being caught, that some species are being driven to near extinction. Some animals, predominantly birds and reptiles, are being sold as pets. Others are being slaughtered for meat or body parts, which are used in pills or potions.
The pangolin, a scaly anteater whose meat is used for soup, and whose scales are believed to have medicinal properties, is being shipped out of south-east Asia by the crateload, and has been all but wiped out in Vietnam and Cambodia.
The WildGenes lab, where Ogden and McEwing are based, was built 18 months ago for conservation work at the zoo and beyond. When working for WildGenes, the pair, along with their colleague Dr Helen Senn, are involved in using DNA to monitor and influence breeding programmes, and in larger projects, such as the initiative to reintroduce beavers to Scotland.
Prior to its founding, the scientists were already directors of Trace, a non-governmental organisation which brings together forensic experts and enforcement agencies in an attempt to crack down on the trafficking of wildlife. In particular, they have spearheaded the ASEAN-WEN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations – Wildlife Enforcement Network) project, which aims to help countries in Southeast Asia tackle the illegal wildlife trade. Read more : scotsman.com
