Woodcock Lauren, Ringe Julia, Frascione Nunzianda
King's Forensics, Department of Analytical, Environmental and Forensic Sciences, King's College London, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, UK.
City of London Police Fingerprint Laboratory, King's College London, 150 Stamford Street, London SE1 9NH, UK.
Forensic Sci Int. 2025 Feb;367:112363. doi: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2025.112363. Epub 2025 Jan 5.
Wildlife forensics is a relatively underexplored field of science. It provides forensic evidence to support legal investigations involving wildlife crime, such as the trafficking and poaching of animals and/or their goods. The consequences of poaching are not just limited to a decline in animal welfare and include the spread of zoonotic disease, species, cultural and habitat loss, and injury of anti-poaching rangers. Fingermark analysis for the identification of perpetrators of wildlife crimes has not been explored to a great extent despite being a cost-effective, simple-to-use forensic method that is easy to deploy in-field. Pangolins are small, scaly mammals that reside in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and are the most heavily trafficked wild mammal in the world. Pangolin scales are consumed, as they are believed to have healing or magical properties. This study aimed to find an effective method of visualising latent fingermarks on pangolin scales. Six standard fingermark powders were tested: two types of black and white powders (regular granular and SupraNano powders) and two metallic powders (aluminium and magneta flake). In addition, three fluorescent powders (fpNatural® 1 and 2 and red fluorescent powder) were investigated. Black gelatine was primarily tested as a lifting apparatus. The study compared the efficacy of black gelatine, two types of tape, and silicone putty lifters in lifting fingermarks on pangolin scales. Lifted fingermarks were then imaged with the Digital Capture Suite DCS®4 (standard) and DCS®5 (fluorescent powders) imaging systems. A further study was conducted evaluating the ability of the three best powders to visualise marks aged for three and seven days. Aluminium and magneta flake powders were significantly more effective than other standard powders, yielding more fingermarks suitable for comparison and search on fingermark databases. Red fluorescent powder was the most effective of the fluorescent powders. The black gelatine lifter was not noticeably more effective than the two tape lifters tested. It is estimated that tape would be the optimal alternative lifting tool to use if black gelatine melts on hot wildlife crime scenes. The impact of this study is that these techniques can be deployed in remote areas where they are urgently needed to fight crime, providing additional forensic tools to anti-poaching agents on the front line tackling pangolin poaching. This will lead to an increase in convictions of pangolin poachers, which could lead to dismantling pangolin supply chains, prosecuting organised crime syndicates, and preventing further pangolin poaching.
野生动物法医鉴定是一个相对未被充分探索的科学领域。它提供法医证据，以支持涉及野生动物犯罪的法律调查，如动物及其制品的非法交易和偷猎。偷猎的后果不仅限于动物福利的下降，还包括人畜共患病的传播、物种、文化和栖息地的丧失，以及反偷猎护林员的受伤。尽管指纹分析是一种经济高效、易于使用且便于在野外部署的法医方法，但在很大程度上尚未被用于识别野生动物犯罪的肇事者。穿山甲是一种小型有鳞哺乳动物，栖息在亚洲和撒哈拉以南非洲，是世界上被贩运最严重的野生哺乳动物。穿山甲鳞片被食用，因为人们认为它们具有治疗或神奇的特性。本研究旨在找到一种有效方法来显现穿山甲鳞片上的潜在指纹。测试了六种标准指纹粉：两种黑白粉末（常规颗粒状和超纳米粉末）和两种金属粉末（铝粉和品红色片状粉末）。此外，还研究了三种荧光粉末（fpNatural® 1和2以及红色荧光粉）。黑色明胶主要作为提取工具进行测试。该研究比较了黑色明胶、两种胶带和硅胶腻子提取器在提取穿山甲鳞片上指纹的效果。然后，用数字采集套件DCS®4（标准）和DCS®5（荧光粉）成像系统对提取的指纹进行成像。还进行了进一步的研究，评估三种最佳粉末显现三天和七天龄痕迹的能力。铝粉和品红色片状粉末比其他标准粉末显著更有效，产生了更多适合在指纹数据库中进行比对和搜索的指纹。红色荧光粉是荧光粉中最有效的。黑色明胶提取器并不比测试的两种胶带提取器明显更有效。据估计，如果黑色明胶在炎热的野生动物犯罪现场融化，胶带将是最佳的替代提取工具。这项研究的影响在于，这些技术可以部署在迫切需要打击犯罪的偏远地区，为一线打击穿山甲偷猎的反偷猎人员提供额外的法医工具。这将导致穿山甲偷猎者定罪率上升，进而可能瓦解穿山甲供应链，起诉有组织犯罪集团，并防止进一步的穿山甲偷猎行为。
