Sept. 28, 2006 — High-tech forensic methods used in human murder investigations are now being applied to crime involving wildlife, with remarkable success.
The perpetrators may lie and try to hide evidence, but scientists have been tracking down suspects for crimes ranging from the killing of animals for sport to the illegal smuggling of clothing and food.
Badger Baiters Exposed
British police recently apprehended individuals suspected of a crime known as badger baiting, which usually involves hitting a badger over the head with a shovel, placing the animal in a pit, and setting dogs upon it.
Dog owners often make bets on which canine will do the most damage. The practice still occurs, despite having been illegal in Britain since 1835.
Dirty garden spades were found in a suspect’s shed, but the man said he had just done some planting. The case seemed to be at a dead end until the police brought the spades to Ruth Morgan, a scientist at Oxford University’s Center for the Environment.
"Most people think that mud is mud is mud," Morgan told Discovery News. "What they don’t realize is that almost everything within dirt, such as plant materials, minerals and quartz, can tell us exactly where the mud came from."
Morgan and her team had just solved a murder case in England, linking dirt from a vacuum cleaner used to clean a suspect’s car to a location where two girls’ bodies were dumped.
The scientists used the same research methods when analyzing the mud-caked spades. Their findings will be published in the October issue of the journal Forensic Science International.
Examining the samples with microscopes revealed particles of quartz, iron-rich nodules, small clumps of clay, wood pieces, miscellaneous organic debris and light-colored root fibers. The mixture closely matched dirt samples from the badger baiting site.
The size and shape distribution of the particles also matched granules linked to the crime scene, but this still wasn’t enough evidence for conviction.
"In court, we’ve found that pollen and quartz analysis are stronger and more indicative pieces of evidence," Morgan said.
In this case, quartz turned out to be especially important, since the combination of grain textures found on the shovels could not be matched to more than 1,000 U.K. soil locations documented in the scientists’ database. The textures did, however, match dirt taken from the badger baiting site.
The evidence helped convict the suspects.
Since the case, the scientists have helped British authorities catch another badger baiter, whose boots were caked in mud and bits of badger fur. They also stopped an illegal importer of endangered falcons, whose rope carried mud that was linked to falcon breeding sites in Mallorca, Spain.
Shawl Smugglers Nabbed
Dirt analysis isn’t the only tool in a detective’s kit. Researchers also analyze fibers with microscopes and test DNA for a variety of wildlife-related criminal investigations.
This summer, Thai authorities, in conjunction with the Association of South East Asian Nations Wildlife Enforcement Network, the World Conservation Union (WCU), World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and WildAid, busted a smuggling ring involved in the illegal trade of shahtoosh wool. This wool can only be obtained by killing the endangered Tibetan antelope.
