The illegal trade in tigers (Panthera tigris) and their derivatives, such as bones, teeth and pelts, is a major threat to the species' long-term persistence. As wild tiger populations have dwindled, a large proportion of trafficked tiger products now derive from captive breeding facilities found throughout Asia. Moreover, wild tigers have been poached and laundered into captive facilities, then falsely designated as captive-bred.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe describe the use of handheld X-ray fluorescence, for elephant tusk species identification. Asian (n = 72) and African (n = 85) elephant tusks were scanned and we utilized the species differences in elemental composition to develop a functional model differentiating between species with high precision. Spatially, the majority of measured elements (n = 26) exhibited a homogeneous distribution in cross-section, but a more heterologous pattern in the longitudinal direction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF