News Genetics

Ivory DNA pinpoints poaching hot spots

Two African regions ID’d as centers of illegal trafficking

poachers stand over the body of an elephant

ILLEGAL IVORY  Poachers stand over the body of an elephant killed for its tusks. With a genetic analysis of seized ivory, researchers have pinpointed two major poaching hot spots in Africa.

Karl Ammann

By Meghan Rosen

Ivory poachers tend to hunt elephants in just a few key spots in Africa, a new genetic analysis shows.

The DNA signatures of smuggled tusks seized by law enforcement officials over the last 20 years finger central and southeastern Africa as hotbeds of organized ivory trafficking crime and corruption, scientists suggest online June 18 in Science.