Scientists deploy DNA analysis and radiocarbon dating in latest salvo against ivory trafficking

The United States, a major ivory market The sale of ivory across international boundaries has been banned since 1990, when the African elephant was listed among species prohibited for commercial trade, but the precious commodity still manages to find its way to buyers in Asia, Europe, and North America. The United States buys more retail ivory than any country except China. Until 2016, it allowed the import and domestic trade of antiques and ivory from elephants killed before the listing. The 2016  near-total ban on commercial trade in African elephant ivory sharply restricted its legal sale, but illegal ivory sales continue, especially over the internet. A pair of carved ivory maidens seized in New York City. They were part of a $4.5 million seizure of illegal ivory from a New York City antiques shop. Photo credit: Wild Tomorrow Fund Sifting the legal from the illegal has proved difficult. One study found that most items sold were antiques and that a high proportion of seizures in the U.S. between 1990 and 2005 were small and comprised primarily jewelry and other personal possessions. Nevertheless, smugglers have continued to import recently carved items from China and Hong Kong into markets in several major U.S. cities, including New York, Honolulu, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, and, more recently, Washington, D.C. Determining the year an elephant that produced a tusk was killed not only establishes if the ivory being sold is legal; it also helps assess the current extent of poaching. If much of the…

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