Scientists use DNA to track poached elephant ivory

WASHINGTON, Feb 27 (Reuters) Scientists alarmed by a surge in the slaughter of elephants for ivory said they have devised a genetic method for tracking the origin of poached tusks and pinpointing ''hot spots'' for the illicit trade.

The killing of elephants for their tusks has reached levels not seen since a treaty that banned the ivory trade took effect in 1989, and the rise has been fueled by growing demand in Asia, the scientists said. The world community must act now or risk having the mammals, which live in Africa and Asia, become extinct, they said yesterday.

''Many, many people are unaware of how serious the problems have become again,'' lead researcher Samuel Wasser, director of the University of Washington Center for Conservation Biology, said in an interview.

Policing the illegal trade has been hampered by the inability of authorities to figure out the geographic origin of black-market ivory.

The researchers gathered genetic information on various elephant populations in Africa using tissue and dung samples from the animals. They then made a DNA-based map of the elephant populations.

Using tusks from a huge haul of contraband ivory seized in Singapore in 2002, the researchers used their genetic analysis to determine where the elephants were killed.

Wildlife authorities initially thought the ivory came from forest- and savanna-dwelling African elephants from multiple locations in Africa.

But an examination of 67 tusks from the 532 seized in Singapore showed the elephants were savanna dwellers from a small pocket of southern Africa, probably centered on Zambia.

The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers are working with international law enforcement authorities and hope their method to pinpoint ivory origins can assist efforts against poaching.

'POACHING HOT SPOTS' ''What we're trying to do is to get identified poaching hot spots,'' Wasser said. This information also can help detect smuggling trade routes, he added.

There are about 400,000 elephants remaining in the wild, most in Africa and the rest in Asia. Before the 1989 treaty, poachers annually slaughtered about 87,000 elephants, roughly eight to nine per cent of the world population at the time, Wasser said.

''Now it's closer to about 25,000 elephants killed per year,'' Wasser said, representing six to seven per cent of the world population. ''But there's way less elephants now.'' The roughly 130,000 elephants in Botswana are generally safe, he said, but about nine per cent of the remaining population elsewhere annually is being killed.

Wasser said the Democratic Republic of Congo and Tanzania are two of the worst countries for elephant poaching.

The price of high-quality ivory doubled from 1989 to 2004, and has nearly quadrupled in the past two years, fueled by a burgeoning market in China and elsewhere in Asia. Organized crime also is more heavily involved in the trade, Wasser said.

Wasser said Western nations must resume strong enforcement efforts to help combat the ivory trade, which had come to a virtual halt after the 1989 treaty before reviving.

REUTERS BDP RAI0918