Tracing poached ivory to the source

November 4, 2019

African elephant herds are matrilineal: only the males disperse. Mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only from the mother, is an ideal marker for determining the origin of poached ivory, researchers say. Credit: Michael Jeffords and Susan Post

A new software tool will speed up the tracking of locations where African elephant tusks have been poached for ivory.

The freely available interactive tool, Loxodonta Localiser, draws from a comprehensive database of elephant DNA and geographical locations put together by researchers at the University of Illinois, US.