DNA evidence reveals two elephant poaching hotspots in Africa: study

New tools using DNA evidence showed that elephant poaching in Africa may be currently concentrated in as few as two hotspots, researchers from the U.S. University of Washington and France-based Interpol claimed Thursday.

Since 2006, most savanna elephant tusks seized have come from Tanzania and neighboring Mozambique while most forest elephant tusks seized have originated in Gabon, the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, they reported in the U.S. journal Science.

"Africa is a huge continent, and poaching is occurring everywhere. When you look at it that way it seems like a daunting task to tackle this problem," said lead author Samuel Wasser, professor of biology at the University of Washington. "But when you look at large ivory seizures, which represent 70 percent of illegal ivory by weight, you get a different picture."

Wasser previously used DNA from elephant dung, tissue and hair collected across the African continent to map genetic signatures for regional populations. He then developed methods to extract DNA from the ivory, allowing him to analyze seized contraband and determine the elephant's original population.

In the new study, Wasser and colleagues used his DNA methods to analyze 28 large ivory seizures, each more than half a ton, made between 1996 and 2014.

"When we analyze these seizures... we were very, very surprised to find that over the last decade almost all of these seizures came from just two places in Africa," Wasser told a teleconference.

They found more than 85 percent of the forest elephant ivory seized after 2006 was traced to the central African Tridom protected ecosystem that spans northeastern Gabon, northwestern Republic of Congo and southeastern Cameroon, and the adjacent reserve in southwestern Central African Republic.

More than 85 percent of the savanna elephant ivory seized after 2006 was traced to East Africa, mainly from the Selous Game Reserve in southeastern Tanzania and the Niassa Reserve in adjacent northern Mozambique.

In 2011, however, the savanna elephant hotspot began shifting northward, from southeastern Tanzania toward the Ruaha National Park and Rungwa Game Reserve in the country's center, gradually creeping northward toward Kenya.

There were also two hotspots prior to 2006: Zambia and eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, but the two were no longer areas where elephants are targeted after that time, partly because of lack of elephant, Wasser said.

The study also indicated that most ivory seizures were shipped out of a different country from where they originated.

Roughly 50,000 African elephants are now being killed each year from a population of fewer than 500,000 animals. Knowing the primary areas where elephants are poached, according to the researchers, could help combat ivory trafficking at its source. "Understanding that vast amounts of this major transnational trade is focused on two primary areas makes it possible to focus law enforcement on those areas and eliminate the largest amount of illegal killing," Wasser said. Endite