DNA has been extracted from elephant tusks, a development that will help combat the smuggling of illegal ivory.
Despite a ban on international sales of ivory, poaching still takes a heavy toll of elephants. Last year Singapore seized a record 6.5 tonnes of illegal ivory.
Now Samuel Wasser of the University of Washington in Seattle and colleagues have extracted nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from tusks up to 20 years old (Conservation Biology, vol 17, p 1840). By comparing the ivory DNA with DNA from elephant dung collected in known locations, they can map where the tusks come from, information that…
