Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Kensington, 2052 NSW, Australia.
Taronga Wildlife Hospital, Taronga Conservation Society Australia, Mosman, 2088 NSW, Australia.
Sci Rep. 2018 Oct 18;8(1):15380. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-33786-0.
Despite being the fourth largest criminal market in the world, no forensic tools have been sufficiently developed to accurately determine the legal status of seized animals and their parts. Although legal trading is permissible for farmed or captive-bred animals, many animals are illegally removed from the wild and laundered by masquerading them as captive bred. Here we present high-resolution x-ray fluorescence (XRF) as a non-invasive and cost-effective tool for forensic classification. We tested the efficacy of this technique by using machine learning on a training set of zoo specimens and wild-caught individuals of short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus), a small insectivorous monotreme in Australia. XRF outperformed stable isotope analysis (δC, δN), reducing overall classification error below 4%. XRF has the added advantage of providing samples every 200 μm on a single quill, enabling 100% classification accuracy by taking the consensus of votes per quill. This accurate and cost-effective forensic technique could provide a much needed in situ solution for combating the illegal laundering of wildlife, and conversely, assist with certification of legally bred animals.
尽管是世界第四大毒品市场，但没有足够的法医学工具可以准确确定缴获动物及其部分的法律地位。尽管允许养殖或圈养的动物进行合法交易，但许多动物是从野外非法获取的，并通过伪装成圈养的动物来洗钱。在这里，我们提出高分辨率 X 射线荧光（XRF）作为一种非侵入性且具有成本效益的法医分类工具。我们通过在动物园标本和澳大利亚短吻针鼹（Tachyglossus aculeatus）的野生个体的训练集上使用机器学习来测试该技术的功效，短吻针鼹是一种小型食虫单孔目动物。XRF 的表现优于稳定同位素分析（δC、δN），将整体分类错误降低到 4%以下。XRF 的另一个优点是可以在单个羽毛上每隔 200μm 提供一个样本，通过对每根羽毛的投票进行共识，实现 100%的分类准确性。这种准确且具有成本效益的法医技术可以为打击野生动物非法洗钱提供急需的现场解决方案，反之，也可以协助合法养殖动物的认证。
