Aug 4, 2026 |
A green turtle seized at an international airport revealed under ultraviolet light the handprint of whoever handled it, a trace that could identify traffickers.
The technique has already reached Africa with the distribution of more than 200 fingerprint collection kits to border forces in 40 African and Asian countries, according to Positive News.
In Kenya, the evidence obtained with a single kit led to 15 arrests, among them five police officers, and to the seizure of 11 elephant tusks. A white variant of the same powder is now being used to recover prints from rhino horn and pangolin scales.
According to Nature magazine, which included the image in its monthly selection of science photography, the trace was revealed with fluorescent powder on a specimen confiscated at Heathrow airport in London, together with fingerprints collected from an elephant tusk.
The two photographs earned photojournalist Britta Jaschinski first prize in the 2026 edition of Earth Photo. The journal puts the illegal wildlife trade at around 23 billion dollars a year.
The operational advantage is considerable for countries with limited resources. The powders are cheap, can be applied in the field and work where DNA testing is not feasible. Besides fingerprints, the technique makes it possible to detect blood, bodily fluids and gunshot residue.
The laboratory developing these techniques is the Wildlife Crime Lab at the Institute of Zoology, the research arm of the Zoological Society of London. As reported by CNN, the unit states that new generation powders make it possible to recover good quality fingerprints from 70 percent of the specimens tested, and that it is possible to recover DNA left by whoever handled the items.
Organised criminal networks had long regarded wildlife trafficking as a low risk, high return activity, with few convictions and light sentences, and the refinement of forensic science is changing that equation.
The shift has direct consequences for the countries of origin of the seized products. Until now, confiscated ivory proved above all that a crime had taken place. It can now point to who committed it, including at points in the trafficking chain far from where the animal was killed.
Photos: Britta Jaschinski with Royal Geographical Society/Nature
