An overview to the investigative approach to species testing in wildlife forensic science

Wildlife crime takes many forms from trafficking in live specimens, hunting out of season, cruelty to animals, habitat destruction, poaching for meat, poaching for trophies, poaching to use animal parts in medicines, horns and tusks used for jewellery and ornaments - the list goes on. The scope of wildlife crime covers a wide range of diverse crimes and for this reason many newspaper articles, as well as journal papers, will often cite figures such as:'The illegal trade in wildlife is a $20 billion a year industry, second only to trade in illegal drugs'.The monetary figure will often range between 6 and 20 billion US dollars a year and the figure is often cited to Interpol [1]. However, Interpol have confirmed that this statement did not come from them. While this seems to be a fabricated figure, it is difficult to estimate the exact amount of illegal trade as there are not the same international surveillance teams that are used for drug enforcement for the prosecution of offences involving wildlife. Organized crime has not been proven to be linked to wildlife crime but there are indications that this is the case [2]. Another influencing factor in wildlife crime is that there is a high financial return with little chance of being caught and, even if the perpetrators are caught, the penalties are light. Rarely does the maximum penalty for the alleged event meet the potential financial gains [3].According to a recent census by the World Wildlife Fund only 3200 tigers (Panthera tigris spp.) exist in the wild [4]. This is a reduction of over 90% in the last century which has lead to more tigers existing in captivity in Texas than exist worldwide in the wild. Similarly, the population of black rhino (Diceros bicornis) decreased by 96% between 1970 and 1992 [5]. In 1970, it was estimated that there were approximately 65,000 black rhinos in Africa - but, by 1993, there were only 2300 surviving in the wild. Intensive anti-poaching efforts have had encouraging results since