Nuclear Fallout May Help Track Illegal Ivory

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Nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s and 1960s may at last have a silver lining, because researchers can now measure radiocarbon levels to tell when animals (including humans) were born and when they died, critical information in helping to track poachers of elephants, hippos, rhinos and other wildlife. 

The technique, outlined in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, measures radiocarbon-14 deposited in tissue, such as horns, hooves, nails, tusks, hair and teeth. It then uses that information to determine the animal’s birth and death data.

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The testing method could help curb the illegal ivory trade, which is wiping African elephants off the planet.

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“Ivory seizures and illegal trade of animals is on the scale of many billions of dollars each year,” senior author Thure Cerling, a University of Utah geochemist, told Discovery News. “Where did this material come from? Is it from recently poached animals? Is it from some government stockpile? These are important questions that can serve as a starting point for further investigative work.”