TY - JOUR
T1 - Fingermarks in wildlife forensics
T2 - A review
AU - Woodcock, Lauren
AU - Gooch, James
AU - Wolff, Kim
AU - Daniel, Barbara
AU - Frascione, Nunzianda
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors
PY - 2023/9
Y1 - 2023/9
N2 - Wildlife forensics is defined as providing forensic evidence to support legal investigations involving wildlife crime, such as the trafficking and poaching of animals and/ or their goods. While wildlife forensics is an underexplored field of science, the ramifications of poaching can be catastrophic. The consequences of wildlife crime include disease spread, species and habitat loss, human injury, and cultural loss. Efforts to use forensic science to combat poaching are currently limited to DNA-based techniques. However, fingermark analysis for the identification of perpetrators of wildlife crimes has not been explored to the same extent, despite being a cost-effective, simple-to-use forensic method that is easy to deploy in-field. This review covers literature that has explored fingermark examination techniques used on wildlife-related samples, such as pangolin scales, ivory-based substances, bone, and eggs, as well as feathers and skins, among more obscure trafficked items. Useful preliminary work has been conducted in this subject area, demonstrating that commonly used fingermark analysis techniques can be applied to wildlife-based items. However, many of these studies suffer from limitations in terms of experimental design. More work should be done on creating studies with larger sample sizes and novel approaches should be validated under environmental conditions that mimic real crime scenes. Further research into determining the forensic fingermark analysis techniques that perform the most efficiently in the environmental conditions of the countries where they are needed would therefore benefit legal investigations and help to reduce instances of poaching.
AB - Wildlife forensics is defined as providing forensic evidence to support legal investigations involving wildlife crime, such as the trafficking and poaching of animals and/ or their goods. While wildlife forensics is an underexplored field of science, the ramifications of poaching can be catastrophic. The consequences of wildlife crime include disease spread, species and habitat loss, human injury, and cultural loss. Efforts to use forensic science to combat poaching are currently limited to DNA-based techniques. However, fingermark analysis for the identification of perpetrators of wildlife crimes has not been explored to the same extent, despite being a cost-effective, simple-to-use forensic method that is easy to deploy in-field. This review covers literature that has explored fingermark examination techniques used on wildlife-related samples, such as pangolin scales, ivory-based substances, bone, and eggs, as well as feathers and skins, among more obscure trafficked items. Useful preliminary work has been conducted in this subject area, demonstrating that commonly used fingermark analysis techniques can be applied to wildlife-based items. However, many of these studies suffer from limitations in terms of experimental design. More work should be done on creating studies with larger sample sizes and novel approaches should be validated under environmental conditions that mimic real crime scenes. Further research into determining the forensic fingermark analysis techniques that perform the most efficiently in the environmental conditions of the countries where they are needed would therefore benefit legal investigations and help to reduce instances of poaching.
KW - Fingermark analysis
KW - Fingermarks
KW - Poaching
KW - Trafficking
KW - Wildlife forensics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85165385290&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2023.111781
DO - 10.1016/j.forsciint.2023.111781
M3 - Review article
C2 - 37478729
AN - SCOPUS:85165385290
SN - 0379-0738
VL - 350
JO - Forensic Science International
JF - Forensic Science International
M1 - 111781
ER -