DNA key in dung deal to save Cambodian elephants

Chee Chee Leung, The Age August 3, 2007 IT'S a big job but someone's got to do it. Melbourne scientists are to run DNA tests on elephant dung sent from Cambodia to help work out numbers and monitor wild populations in the formerly war-torn nation. Rangers have collected almost 600 elephant dung samples from the Cardamom Mountains in the country's south-west, a former stronghold of the Khmer Rouge. The specimens have been packed in test tubes and are due to arrive next month in Melbourne, where they will be analysed by biologists at Wantirna laboratory DNA Solutions. Elephant biologist Joe Heffernan said getting a more accurate picture of population size would help conservationists work out how many elephants were being poached. Mr Heffernan, from conservation group Fauna & Flora, which is leading the project, said it was surprisingly difficult to count elephants in the wild. Despite their size, they can silently "disappear" into forests, and a person can be within metres of one without even knowing it. For the full story click on the blog title