A Different Kind of CSI

[mariann]

The National Zoo's publication, Zoogoer, had a great article late last year about using forensics to track down wildlife-related crimes. I only discovered the article last night, but it was such an intriguing, different kind of crime scene investigation that I just had to share it here!

In an ideal world, a wildlife criminal would be caught with his victim in one hand and a gun in the other. In the real world, criminals are sometimes snagged with the proverbial blood on their hands, but more often investigators find a few scraps of evidence and suspects who are intent on covering their tracks. When the only thing a wildlife criminal leaves behind is a drop of blood, a feather, or a few bones, scientists must step in to piece the story together.

In criminal cases involving people, police enlist the help of witnesses, DNA analysis, ballistic tests, and various other methods to narrow their search for a suspect. These same techniques are available to those who crack wildlife cases, but investigators sometimes have the added complication of first identifying the victims’ species.

Read the rest of the article here.

Enjoy!