Researchers from the University of Utah have come up with a novel method to fight the illegal poaching of animals such as elephants. All it requires is measuring the radioactive carbon-14 present in the tusks.
"With an accurate age of the ivory, we can verify if the trade is legal or not," said geochemist Kevin Uno, who worked on the research for his University of Utah Ph.D. thesis. "Currently 30,000 elephants a year are slaughtered for their tusks, so there is a desperate need to enforce the international trade ban and reduce demand."
Carbon-14 was deposited in greater concentrations into our planet's atmosphere from U.S. and Soviet nuclear missile tests that took place between the 1950s and 1960s. It's from this period that levels of carbon-14 found in animals are usually the highest.
By taking stock of the radioactive carbon-14 found in a certain piece of ivory, scientists can determine the age of the ivory, and thus, whether it was illegally poached. International trade of raw ivory from Asian elephants was mostly banned after 1975, with African elephants getting protection after 1989. In the United States, any African ivory imported after 1989 must be at least 100 years old. Thus, by combining DNA analysis to determine whether the ivory came from an African or Asian elephant with carbon-14 dating, anti-poaching establishments can piece together whether that piece of ivory is illegal.
"The dating method is affordable and accessible to government and law enforcement agencies," explains Uno, who also stated that the average cost per sample is $500.
"It has immediate applications to fighting the illegal sale and trade of ivory that has led to the highest rate of poaching seen in decades," Uno explained.
You can read the full published study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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