Forensics in Wildlife Crime Investigation

Wildlife crime is the great equalizer of the 21st century – it has threatened biodiversity, economies, lives and livelihoods, in equal measure in both developing and developed nations of the world. It has changed facets and scale in a manner befitting a rapidly digitized world that has witnessed the blurring of personal and materialistic boundaries. Wildlife crime has reached far beyond feeding the nutritional and ritualistic needs of communities living near forest areas, and has assumed the role of feeding the gargantuan greed and decadent lifestyles of consumers across the remotest parts of the globe.

Forensic scientists now play a crucial role in wildlife crime investigation (Photo: World Skills, UK, CC BY 2.0)

It is then little wonder that wildlife crime has now been pegged as the fourth largest organized crime in the world. It has been revealed to have impermeable supply chain management systems that can put many a multinational business to shame. Several studies report that the proceeds from wildlife crime finance other organized crimes like arms dealing, creating one of the most detrimental vicious cycles.

The jury is out

While wildlife crime grows exponentially, enforcement agencies around the world are left breathless trying to wage a war against it. Effective investigation of wildlife crime continues to pose an insurmountable hurdle for all nations of the world. Judges and lawyers dealing with wildlife cases continue to grapple with shallow understanding of wildlife crime, the evidences against it, and the laws applicable to it.

Customers sitting in far off destinations like Russia, China, and Japan have little regard for how their demand for exotic plants and animals, and their parts, be it to treat the body, the senses, or a misplaced sense of prosperity, is destroying natural heritage and threatening the national security of nations that serve as source and transit routes for international wildlife trade. The individuals, communities, and mafia involved in procurement and trade in wildlife have little fear of any possible legal ramifications, which have become a mere urban legend. The few criminals that do get caught and prosecuted are, at best, let off with a heavy slap on the wrist. The majority of them are so low down in the chain that it has no effect on the burgeoning trade.

Several nations have implemented stricter laws, put in place entire trade bans, and signed treaties with neighbouring nations as well as international organizations such as Interpol in an effort to combat the demon of wildlife crime. The corporate world has, in recent years, emerged as an ally with many a pledge of time, intellect, and money to this battle. These collective efforts have, thus far, only succeeded in bringing to flickering light the fact that wildlife crime is a serious threat and that traditional crime fighting tools are crippled against it.

There does, however, exist a light at the end of this seemingly bleak tunnel. Scientists working in forensics laboratories are donning their white coats, purple gloves, and using state-of-the-art tools to join the global fight against wildlife crime.

Beyond the CSI effect

Forensics, originating from the Latin word forensis that means “in open court”, encompasses numerous disciplines – art, commerce, psychology, and science – that can be used to investigate a criminal matter. Forensic science governs any and all sciences that can be applied to such investigations to examine evidences, create linkages, and to reveal yet unknown information.
Forensic science has in recent history helped nab many blue and white collar criminals through the creative application of scientific principles and development of new scientific methodologies. Today, forensic scientists are putting their expertise to use in the investigation of wildlife crime – be it hunting or poaching, illegal transportation, or trade, and illicit use or consumption of protected wildlife and their derivatives.

Forensics in Wildlife Crime Investigation - WCT — Investigators are often handicapped by the inability to accurately identify the species of origin for the wildlife articles they seize from criminals (Photo: Prasenjeet Navgire)

Products made from protected wildlife, such as these nautilus shell ornaments, are illegally traded across physical and online markets (Photo: Creative Commons)

Forensic scientists have developed tools to analyse a variety of wild animal parts (Photo: Prasenjeet Navgire)

Animal parts can provide a host of information when forensically analysed (Photo: C Samyukta)

Forensic analysis is highly dependent on the quality of evidence collected (Photo: C Samyukta)

Forensic scientists around the world are guided by a golden rule, namely Locard’s Exchange Principle, which holds that ‘every contact leaves a trace’. In other words, the perpetrator of a crime will bring a sign or trace of himself into the crime scene and leave with something from it, and such traces can be used as evidence. Items of evidence collected by authorized officers from wildlife crime scenes and contraband intercepted by agencies such as Customs are entrusted to the hands of forensic scientists to scrutinise them for traces of human activity and protected animal parts. Such detailed analysis has the potential to provide a large body of proof “beyond reasonable doubt” that courts across the world rely on to arrive at decisions on criminal matters.

Unfortunately, owing to the inaccurate depiction and dramatization of forensic scientists by cinema and media (commonly referred to as the CSI Effect), they are expected to be part-scientists and part-magicians. They are expected to conduct post mortems which, contrary to popular belief, they are neither trained nor qualified to perform. They are expected to provide reports in unrealistic timelines and help find clues that are not visible to the naked eye, sometimes even to the trained investigative eye. While the latter may still be possible with specific kinds of evidences, forensic scientists can largely work only within the purview of the law. They can only provide answers to questions that investigative agencies pose, and in countries such as India where it is not the norm for a forensic scientist to visit the crime scene, their work is limited by the quality of evidence collected by investigators.

Truth is in the details

Enforcement agencies can effectively implement wildlife law only when they are able to identify wildlife and their derivatives down to the species level. In addition, the reliable identification of wildlife criminals is of paramount importance but poses a constant challenge, given the complex nature of wildlife crime itself. So far, evidence on these matters has been largely garnered through wildlife expert testimony and eyewitness testimony, respectively. Both of these have failed to be admitted as sufficient proof by courts on several occasions. As a result, enforcement agencies now increasingly turn to forensic scientists to provide reliable proof for the identification of wildlife contraband and wildlife criminals.

Unless already ascertained by a trained wildlife investigator, forensic scientists may be required to begin their examination by looking for tell-tale signs to confirm whether a particular wildlife article is genuine or fake – a problem frequently encountered in illegal wildlife trade. The unique pattern of crossing lines in genuine elephant ivory (known as the Schreger Pattern), the characteristic shape of a leopard’s canines, or the characteristic contouring patterns of tiger stripes are common examples of morphological evidence that aid forensic scientists in this decision making. If these do not lead them anywhere, or the evidences are not in a form that allows such identification, forensic scientists have at their disposal a whole other arsenal of tools.

Forensic DNA typing allows scientists to exploit unique genetic sequences in DNA to identify which wild animal or plant species a particular product came from, or to link small amounts of biological evidences such as sweat, hair, or saliva to the individual criminal that left them at the crime scene. Forensic trichology enables scientists to examine the unique structures of animal hair at microscopic level to identify which species a confiscated skin or fur belongs to. This is critical when DNA evidence in such wildlife artefacts cannot be harnessed due to the effects of chemical processing. Traces of physical evidence such as glass, fibres, paint, etc. left by criminals at crime scenes are also exploited by forensic scientists to link suspects to the scene and the crime in question.

When parts of an animal that is suspected to have been poisoned are subjected to forensic toxicological techniques, scientists are able to identify the nature and quantity of the poison administered. Such information enables officers to specifically look for and retrieve further evidence such as poison bottles and poison-stained clothes from suspects. When articles from butcher shops and restaurants suspected of selling wild animal meat are sent to forensic scientists, techniques of forensic serology help them identify the species being processed and/or served. When culprits are yet unknown, forensic scientists can extract serological evidence from items such as cigarette butts and clothing left at crime scenes. This provides corroborative leads required by investigators to sift through large groups of people to identify possible suspects. Similarly, forensic analysis of impression evidences such as footwear impressions and tyre tread marks can be used by scientists to generate investigative leads that help narrow down searches for suspects.

Forensic fingerprint analysis when applied to wildlife crime scenes allows scientists to prove that a suspect handled the gun, the knife, the trap, the vehicle, or any object suspected to have been used in the commission of the offence in question. Forensic scientists can today retrieve fingerprints even from egg shells, ivory and feathers; enabling investigators to directly link criminals to these wild animal parts. In cases of hunting, forensic ballistic analysis of firearms and gunshot residue recovered from the person of the suspect, as well as of the bullets recovered from the dead animal, allows scientists to link the suspect to the crime scene and to prove his criminal activity. Even older forensic techniques, such as handwriting and document analysis, are finding a place in wildlife crime investigation, especially given the large volume of falsified import-export documents that allow illegal international trade of wildlife to carry on unabated.

Forensic scientists can use clues left at or near a crime scene, like tyre marks (left) and footwear prints (right), to narrow down suspects (Photo: Creative Commons)

The methods employed for trading wildlife products have undergone a sea change. Lately, social media and smartphones have aided uncontrolled access to wildlife products, and consequently, have catalysed the prolific growth of illegal wildlife trade. In this scenario, the astute use of Cyber Forensics enables forensic scientists to provide enforcement agencies with dependable digital evidence against wildlife criminals, even when they operate remotely.

When all other investigative processes lead to a dead end, enforcement agencies have been known to request forensic labs to run forensic psychological tests, such as narco analysis and brain mapping, on wildlife criminals. While these tests are still largely open to question and can only be administered if consent is given by the suspect, they do have the potential to help elicit hitherto ‘hidden’ information about the crime. In a handful of cases, investigators have also cleverly employed forensic accounting tools to uncover ‘black money’ trails typically associated with illegal wildlife trade and used such evidence to book wildlife criminals under serious offences of money laundering and corruption.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence

It is believed that evidence never lies. The forensic scientist of today has many a technique tucked up his lab coat sleeve to make evidences from wildlife crimes ‘talk’. However, forensic science at work for wildlife crime investigation is not always a cake walk.

Evidences such as DNA, footwear impressions and tyre tread marks are often rendered unreliable due to the effect of the elements, or the constant disturbances typically seen in outdoor crime scenes. Investigators are frequently underequipped for the proper collection of evidences. Consequently, evidences that are sent to forensic labs tend to be too far compromised to allow analysis. Furthermore, methodologies being employed for forensic analysis of wildlife evidence have not yet undergone the same rigorous levels of standardization as their counterparts in human evidence analysis.

Most nations do not yet have the legal sanction to create databases for human-related personal information, such as DNA and fingerprints, which are required to statistically validate findings from forensics analyses. The few databases that exist in nations such as India can be used to enforce cases of cross-border wildlife trade, but coordination between nations is lacking on this front. This hinders the seamless linking of criminals to the truly worldwide web of wildlife crime. On the bright side, with open source wildlife DNA databases, such as those put together by scientists at the International Barcode for Life Project (iBOL), the reliability of DNA sequencing of wildlife evidence has increased considerably. However, exhaustive databases for other wildlife articles such as hair, fur, bones, feathers, etc. are scarce.

The famous journalist Joseph Pulitzer once said, “There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy.” The role of today’s forensic scientist is increasingly important in the efforts being made around the world to uncover the secrets of wildlife crime and its perpetrators. Thus, forensic laboratories must be recognized as important stakeholders, and governments must invest human and financial resources in the development of dedicated, high throughput wildlife forensic laboratories. Judges, lawyers, and enforcement officers must be trained on the pertinent role and use of forensic wildlife evidence. Intergovernmental agencies such as SAWEN (South Asia Wildlife Enforcement Network) should be tasked with coordinating the seamless sharing of forensic intelligence and databases between neighbouring nations targeted by the same nexus of wildlife criminals. Financial institutions and specialized units such as the state-level Anti- Corruption Bureaus must be roped in on investigations on a regular basis to bolster scientific evidence of wildlife crime with financial evidence. On their part, forensic scientists must dedicate time for research, development, and standardization of robust tools for rapid and real-time identification of wildlife contraband when it is intercepted by enforcement agencies.

In conclusion, the time has come to truly harness the power of forensics in our common intention and efforts to kill wildlife crime in its tracks. Failing to do so would only serve as undeniable proof of our inability to put our efforts against wildlife crime on a war footing.

This article was first published in the BNHS’ Hornbill magazine, January-March 2019 issue.

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C. Samyukta is a post-graduate in Forensic Science. She is currently putting her decade-long experience in training to use against wildlife crime with the Wildlife Conservation Trust, India.