Conservationists look to CSI for elephant counts

Christopher Shay, Phnom Penh Post
April 7, 2009

A technique allowing scientists to ‘fingerprint' elephant DNA from dung samples has revolutionised animal censuses.

WILDLIFE conservationists have no idea how many wild elephants there are in Cambodia, but as DNA analysis becomes more affordable, conservationists are turning to the same techniques used by crime laboratories to determine Cambodia's wild elephant population. The main difference from forensic detectives is that conservationists gather their evidence from fresh elephant dung.

The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), WWF and Fauna and Flora International (FFI) are all using "fecal DNA capture-recapture surveys", a simple and accurate method to calculate the elephant population that avoids the need to disturb elephants or put humans at risk.

The Forestry Administration and conservation groups send trackers to places where elephants are thought to congregate, but instead of looking for the animals themselves, they collect 1-cubic-centimetre samples of elephant dung and place them in a preservative, which are then sent to labs in Australia or the US.

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