WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:01.320 Welcome. 2 00:00:01.520 --> 00:00:04.160 This is Marcia for Radio I, and today I will 3 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:10.320 be reading National Geographic Magazine dated August twenty twenty five, 4 00:00:11.240 --> 00:00:14.359 which is donated by the publisher as a reminder. 5 00:00:14.439 --> 00:00:16.039 RADIOI is a reading. 6 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:19.000 Service intended for people who are blind or have other 7 00:00:19.079 --> 00:00:22.879 disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material. Please 8 00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:26.079 join me now for the continuation of the art of 9 00:00:26.239 --> 00:00:30.760 Calibi can last time entitled at Work with the Gorilla 10 00:00:30.960 --> 00:00:36.000 Ballooness of South Korea by Paul Sellopek. 11 00:00:37.280 --> 00:00:38.039 Could be a North. 12 00:00:37.960 --> 00:00:41.960 Korean spy, said Lee, a former agricultural engineer in the North, 13 00:00:42.399 --> 00:00:45.840 or a pro North Korean citizen here. He added, there 14 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:50.759 are people who disapprove he means communist sympathizers. Lee launches 15 00:00:50.799 --> 00:00:53.960 his airships at night from a remote valley near the DMZ. 16 00:00:54.560 --> 00:00:57.679 He packs the balloons with thousands of pages of photocopied 17 00:00:57.759 --> 00:01:02.320 essays on free will and less frequently with aspirin thumb 18 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:09.040 drives located with nature documentaries, women's nylons, anything scarce. In 19 00:01:09.079 --> 00:01:13.239 the threadbare North, he lives in a rusting shipping container 20 00:01:13.280 --> 00:01:16.480 at the site. His South Korean wife and son deserted 21 00:01:16.560 --> 00:01:21.680 him for California, Desperate to connect with someone on the 22 00:01:21.719 --> 00:01:24.480 other side of the fortified border. He takes the risk 23 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:26.760 of including his real name and phone number on his 24 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:31.120 political leaflets. After years of balloon releases, he admitted wearily, 25 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:37.200 nobody has called my entree to the ballooning world. The 26 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:42.280 younger Park still possesses a novice's enthusiasm. His balloons are 27 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:47.879 constructed from tough but lightweight plastic normally used for agricultural purposes. 28 00:01:48.560 --> 00:01:53.519 An electronic ultimeter triggers clamps to release sacks of religious literature, 29 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:57.719 kish and other cargo from about five thousand feet. The 30 00:01:57.799 --> 00:02:02.480 bags float down on tiny parachutes, which Park tracks via 31 00:02:02.519 --> 00:02:05.799 GPS devices. On the night that he allowed me to 32 00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:08.599 join him, his crew released all of their balloons at once. 33 00:02:09.240 --> 00:02:13.639 Park arms stretched skyward, muttered a prayer. The team stood 34 00:02:13.639 --> 00:02:16.439 gazing up for long seconds as the twenty five balloons 35 00:02:16.800 --> 00:02:20.000 fluttered and climbed in the night breeze. Park said the 36 00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:23.159 balloons would be picked up by South Korean radar in 37 00:02:23.199 --> 00:02:28.000 twenty nine minutes, after which military police would come to investigate. 38 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:31.759 The balloonists began loading up in haste to depart. I 39 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:35.800 watched their handiwork ghost up into the darkness like a 40 00:02:35.879 --> 00:02:42.560 sad miracle next can Forensic science Stopped the illegal wildlife 41 00:02:42.599 --> 00:02:48.560 trade by Joshua Hammer. Novel technologies and fresh crime fighting 42 00:02:48.599 --> 00:02:53.360 techniques are transforming the battle against trafficking, one gorilla handprint 43 00:02:53.599 --> 00:02:56.960 at a time, the sound of a gunshot altered the 44 00:02:57.080 --> 00:03:02.120 rangers that sometimes was a miss. Advancing through the forest 45 00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:08.439 in thung Yai Naraswan Wildlife Sanctuary in western Thailand, they 46 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:11.159 arrived at a campsite littered with evidence of murder. 47 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:13.560 The blood soaked carcass. 48 00:03:13.000 --> 00:03:16.240 Of a barking deer lay on the ground. Other bits 49 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:20.080 of victims, a khalije pheasant and a rare black leopard, 50 00:03:20.439 --> 00:03:23.520 oozed on a cutting board and simmered in a soup kettle. 51 00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:26.800 The rangers arrested four people at the scene on suspicion 52 00:03:26.840 --> 00:03:31.639 of poaching protected species and violating gun laws, crimes punishable 53 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:32.919 by a maximum. 54 00:03:32.479 --> 00:03:35.879 Ten year jail term. But there was a complication. 55 00:03:36.520 --> 00:03:40.520 The leader of the hunting group was prem Chai Karnusuta, 56 00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:45.000 a construction empire tycoon and one of Thailand's most prominent 57 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:50.840 and powerful men. Karnasuta professed his innocence, apparently trusting that 58 00:03:50.919 --> 00:03:53.400 his well paid lawyers would get him off, but he 59 00:03:53.439 --> 00:03:58.199 hadn't counted on the doggedness and determination of Thailand's wildlife police. 60 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:01.759 The rangers cordoned off the crime scene and seize the carcasses, 61 00:04:02.120 --> 00:04:05.680 along with three rifles, rounds of ammunition, the bush meat 62 00:04:05.719 --> 00:04:08.639 in the cattle, and later even a pile of human excrement. 63 00:04:09.479 --> 00:04:12.319 The evidence was then transported in sealed bags to a 64 00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:16.240 crime lab in Bangkok, where technicians under the supervision of 65 00:04:16.399 --> 00:04:22.959 Kanita Utavan, director of the Parks Department's Wildlife Forensics Laboratory Center, 66 00:04:23.439 --> 00:04:26.199 sequenced the DNA of the bush meat and the feces, 67 00:04:26.600 --> 00:04:30.680 and the Police Forensic Science Office conducted ballistics tests on 68 00:04:30.839 --> 00:04:35.639 the carcasses call it CSI in the Bush. To combat 69 00:04:35.680 --> 00:04:38.680 a surge and poaching and wildlife smuggling in Asia and Africa, 70 00:04:39.160 --> 00:04:43.560 conservationists and police are turning to method's long reserve for homicides, 71 00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:48.439 sexual assaults, and other crimes with human victims. DNA sequencing, 72 00:04:48.519 --> 00:04:53.879 fingerprint analysis, infrared imaging to detect blood, ballistics tests, and 73 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:59.360 additional scientific techniques have been utilized with success against miscreants 74 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:05.279 ranging from pangolin poachers in Zimbabwe to peregrin nest raiders 75 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:11.319 in Scotland. A dramatic change in wildlife statutes has led 76 00:05:11.319 --> 00:05:14.800 to the increasing reliance on forensics. In the past, poachers 77 00:05:14.800 --> 00:05:18.439 and traffickers caught in the act typically pleaded guilty and 78 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:22.839 paid a token fine, But between twenty ten and twenty sixteen, 79 00:05:23.360 --> 00:05:27.519 as poaching numbers, sword countries began to drastically raise their penalties. 80 00:05:28.040 --> 00:05:30.560 They went from a fine of fifty dollars for possession 81 00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:34.000 of ivory two up to ten years in prison, says 82 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:37.800 Rob Ogden, director of conservation science at the University of 83 00:05:37.879 --> 00:05:43.240 Edinburgh and a specialist in DNA profiling. Criminals with resources 84 00:05:43.319 --> 00:05:46.279 began hiring skilled lawyers to fight it out in court. 85 00:05:46.959 --> 00:05:50.720 The defense started saying things like proved that its ivory. 86 00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:56.879 Ogden says, persecution collapsed. Prosecution collapsed because they lacked the 87 00:05:56.920 --> 00:06:02.199 scientific evidence. The scientific evidence analyzed in the Bangkok Lab 88 00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:07.319 was critical in bringing Karnasuta to justice. The defense attempted 89 00:06:07.319 --> 00:06:11.399 to discredit the forensics and the evidentiary chain of custody, 90 00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:16.120 but Wetevan, the lab director, felt no doubt in left 91 00:06:16.240 --> 00:06:20.199 no doubt in the judges minds that Karnasuta's group had 92 00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:23.600 shot the animals. In twenty nineteen, a court sentenced the 93 00:06:23.639 --> 00:06:26.519 tycoon to three years in two months and a two 94 00:06:26.759 --> 00:06:30.879 million bought fifty nine thousand, seven hundred dollars fine, an 95 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:35.240 outcome hailed by the WWF as a victory for wildlife 96 00:06:35.240 --> 00:06:39.639 and a victory for the rule of law. Karnasuta's conviction 97 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:42.040 comes at a time when wildlife and the rule of 98 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:46.360 law are both under siege. High prices for ivory, rhinal horn, 99 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:50.720 pangolin scales, and other wildlife products such as bush meat, 100 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:56.120 the growing sophistication of insurgent groups and international crime organizations, 101 00:06:56.160 --> 00:07:01.800 and endemic corruption are all putting unprecedented pressure on endangered species. 102 00:07:02.360 --> 00:07:06.160 In South Africa, poachers slaughtered ten thousand, three hundred thirty 103 00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:09.600 four rhinos, both black and white, between two thousand and 104 00:07:09.639 --> 00:07:14.079 six and twenty twenty four, the equivalent of two thirds 105 00:07:14.120 --> 00:07:17.680 of the country's entire population. The majority of horns end 106 00:07:17.800 --> 00:07:20.519 up in Vietnam and China, where they are carved into 107 00:07:20.560 --> 00:07:25.240 decorative objects or ground into powder for sale allegedly as medicine. 108 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:30.120 Africa's elephant population dropped from four hundred seventy two two 109 00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:34.040 hundred sixty nine to about four hundred fifteen thousand after 110 00:07:34.199 --> 00:07:40.480 the Convention on International trade in endangered species sites CITES 111 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:43.680 in two thousand and eight permitted a one time sale 112 00:07:43.680 --> 00:07:47.639 of ivory to China, stimulating demand and opening the floodgates 113 00:07:47.680 --> 00:07:51.800 for laundered tusks. The numbers have stabilized, but the pacoderms 114 00:07:52.120 --> 00:07:56.439 remain in danger. Pangolins, tigers, snow leopards, and many other 115 00:07:56.480 --> 00:08:01.240 species are also considered at grave risk. Nations estimates the 116 00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:04.600 global illegal wildlife trade to be worth as much as 117 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:09.040 twenty three billion dollars a year. Wildlife experts have begun 118 00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:12.879 training law enforcement officers in Africa and Asia to back 119 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:16.040 up their arrests with evidence that will stand up in court. 120 00:08:16.519 --> 00:08:20.399 Tracy Alexander, director of forensic Services for the City of 121 00:08:20.439 --> 00:08:23.879 London Police, recalls that when she started working with police 122 00:08:23.920 --> 00:08:27.160 in Zimbabwe, they would stop a car based on a tip, 123 00:08:27.600 --> 00:08:31.480 find rhino horns in the back, four mobile phones and 124 00:08:31.600 --> 00:08:34.600 three guns. The driver would say, I know nothing about this. 125 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:35.559 I'm just the driver. 126 00:08:36.639 --> 00:08:39.679 The guy in the passenger seat would say he just 127 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:42.320 picked me up and I know nothing. The two guys 128 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:44.399 in the back would say, we just asked for a lift. 129 00:08:45.039 --> 00:08:46.240 Then they would let them go. 130 00:08:46.840 --> 00:08:49.360 Now the wildlife police learn how to dust for finger 131 00:08:49.399 --> 00:08:54.279 prints technically known in forensics as finger marks or ridge details, 132 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:58.960 data mines, cell phones, conduct ballistic tests, and seal off 133 00:08:59.000 --> 00:09:04.759 crime scenes. Grant Miller, counter trafficking adviser at the Zoological 134 00:09:04.799 --> 00:09:09.039 Society of London who has trained ecological police in Mongolia 135 00:09:09.159 --> 00:09:13.679 and park rangers in Thailand, the Philippines, Benin, Cameroon, Nepal, 136 00:09:14.080 --> 00:09:18.159 Niger and Kenya, says that officers once passed around elephant 137 00:09:18.159 --> 00:09:21.480 tusks and rhino horns and posed with the contraband without 138 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:25.159 using gloves, but they're coming to understand that effective crime 139 00:09:25.200 --> 00:09:29.679 fighting means avoiding contamination and finding evidence that will be 140 00:09:29.679 --> 00:09:34.360 admissible in the court room. In India, the Forest Department 141 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:38.720 and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau implemented a cutting edge 142 00:09:40.440 --> 00:09:43.480 intelligence gathering system that led to seventy three arrests and 143 00:09:43.519 --> 00:09:47.480 the dismantling of an elephant poaching network that ravaged the 144 00:09:47.480 --> 00:09:52.120 population in twenty fifteen. In Mongolia, a haven for vulnerable 145 00:09:52.240 --> 00:09:57.840 and endangered species ranging from snow leopards to soccer falcons 146 00:09:57.840 --> 00:10:02.159 and wild camels, the Ecologic Police teemed with the Zoological 147 00:10:02.200 --> 00:10:08.039 Society of London and Mangolia's National Forensic Agency and the 148 00:10:08.120 --> 00:10:12.360 Zoological Society lou Ujin. Now they're well trained and they 149 00:10:12.399 --> 00:10:16.799 have a sophisticated forensic setup, says Alexander, including a DNA 150 00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:20.799 lab the whole nine yards. The wildlife cops are also 151 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:25.360 benefiting from new tools aimed at improving evidence gathering. At 152 00:10:25.399 --> 00:10:29.919 the London Metropolitan Police Forensic Science Laboratory in Lambeth, I 153 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:34.799 met Mark Moseley, a silver haired police photographer fifty who 154 00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:40.039 spends his workdays snapping blood curdling images of homicide scenes. 155 00:10:40.600 --> 00:10:42.759 In his spare time, he experiments. 156 00:10:42.200 --> 00:10:47.559 With forensic innovations aimed at combating wildlife crime. Moseley achieved 157 00:10:47.600 --> 00:10:50.639 his first breakthrough twelve years ago after his two young 158 00:10:50.720 --> 00:10:55.480 daughters came across online photos of decapitated elephants while making 159 00:10:55.519 --> 00:10:59.360 elephant themed birthday cards for their grandmother. The girls begged 160 00:10:59.360 --> 00:11:02.279 their father to invented technique that would give the cops 161 00:11:02.279 --> 00:11:04.120 an edge in the war against poachers. 162 00:11:04.600 --> 00:11:05.759 Moseley turned to. 163 00:11:05.720 --> 00:11:09.399 The method pioneered by Sir Edward Henry of the British 164 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:14.440 Colonial Police in India one hundred thirty years ago. Lifting fingerprints. 165 00:11:15.200 --> 00:11:19.279 Elephant tusks are coated in cementum, a porous material that 166 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:23.320 resembles a sponge when looked at through an electron microscope, 167 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:27.600 and fingerprints left by poachers and smugglers rarely survive for 168 00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:32.440 more than seven days using traditional powders. Moseley wanted a 169 00:11:32.519 --> 00:11:35.360 material that would provide a record of the numerous hands 170 00:11:35.759 --> 00:11:38.919 that pass over Ivory during the weeks that often elapse 171 00:11:39.320 --> 00:11:43.759 between poaching in the bush and smuggling overseas. In twenty fifteen, 172 00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:49.919 after months of testing compounds, Moseley came across supr Nanomagnetic powder, 173 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:55.039 a fingerprint enhancer made up of microscopic chemical particles that 174 00:11:55.159 --> 00:11:59.200 can both absorb and repel sweat and oils. It proved 175 00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:02.200 capable of reaching reaving finger ridge details for up to 176 00:12:02.279 --> 00:12:06.960 twenty eight days after prints were deposited. The powder fit 177 00:12:07.159 --> 00:12:11.240 into those tiny pores which the others couldn't do, so 178 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:14.600 we were bringing back much higher resolution, Moseley explained. 179 00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:17.240 Moseley's innovation took off. 180 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:22.039 The International Fund for Animal Welfare IFAW, in partnership with 181 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:26.399 the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office, distributed one hundred 182 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:29.799 finger printing kits, two jars of the magnetic powder and 183 00:12:29.840 --> 00:12:33.720 a magnetic wand brushes and lifting tape packed into a 184 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:37.559 durable plastic orange case, to police and rangers in twenty 185 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:42.360 three countries in Africa and Asia. In twenty seventeen, IFAW 186 00:12:42.440 --> 00:12:46.480 announced that the Kenya Wildlife Service had arrested fifteen people, 187 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:50.679 including five police officers, after using the kits to identify 188 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:55.440 the suspects by their fingerprints on confiscated ivory. The kits 189 00:12:55.440 --> 00:12:59.360 have also been tested successfully on rhino horns, tiger claws, 190 00:12:59.440 --> 00:13:03.879 hippopotami teeth, sperm whale teeth and even eggshells. 191 00:13:03.559 --> 00:13:05.399 All coveted by trackickers. 192 00:13:05.960 --> 00:13:10.080 Moseley's kits have their limitations. Finger Print databases are still 193 00:13:10.200 --> 00:13:13.639 so underdeveloped in Africa that the chances the marks will 194 00:13:13.639 --> 00:13:17.799 turn up any matches remain low. Most African police departments 195 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:21.799 lack Wi Fi and mobile fingerprint scanners that allow officers 196 00:13:22.120 --> 00:13:25.000 to send the images from cell phones to data centers, 197 00:13:25.480 --> 00:13:29.159 which are also often lacking, and many cops don't seem 198 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:32.000 to be invested in the new method. I went to 199 00:13:32.080 --> 00:13:36.399 a wildlife crime conference in Kenya after the kids were distributed. 200 00:13:36.519 --> 00:13:40.039 Kits were distributed, says Alexander. I asked people there, how 201 00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:43.279 many fingerprint marks did you get a few? 202 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:45.159 How many IDs? We don't do that. 203 00:13:45.679 --> 00:13:48.240 We are the finger marks now, I've stashed them in 204 00:13:48.279 --> 00:13:52.000 my drawer. In twenty fifteen, Grant Miller, then working for 205 00:13:52.080 --> 00:13:56.759 the UK's Border Force, used the supranano powder to dust 206 00:13:56.759 --> 00:14:00.320 an ivory shipment seized by customs at Heathrow Airport on 207 00:14:00.360 --> 00:14:05.399 its way from Angola, trafficked by Vietnamese nationals. The dusting 208 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:09.200 turned up several sets of fingerprints, but technicians couldn't hit 209 00:14:09.240 --> 00:14:12.639 on a match in the UK's vast database. Since the 210 00:14:12.720 --> 00:14:16.600 highly publicized bus in twenty seventeen, not a single arrest 211 00:14:16.639 --> 00:14:21.840 has been attributed to the powder kits. Despite those disappointments, 212 00:14:21.960 --> 00:14:25.519 Tracy Alexander and her partners at King's College, London are 213 00:14:25.600 --> 00:14:30.960 working with a fingerprint gathering technology called vacuum metal deposition, 214 00:14:32.039 --> 00:14:35.120 which uses a sealed chamber and metal rods to bring 215 00:14:35.159 --> 00:14:38.919 out prints on canvas, bags and other non smooth surfaces, 216 00:14:39.000 --> 00:14:41.960 including elephant tusks that have been buried in the ground 217 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:45.240 for long periods and have accumulated a coating of dirt 218 00:14:45.320 --> 00:14:48.879 or mud. London police once used the technology to expose 219 00:14:48.919 --> 00:14:51.919 a victim's face on the pillow that was used. 220 00:14:51.679 --> 00:14:52.320 To smother her. 221 00:14:53.200 --> 00:14:57.080 The Zoological Society of London, meanwhile, is promoting a gel 222 00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:01.120 lifter that can pull prints from panglin scales, whose uneven 223 00:15:01.159 --> 00:15:04.200 surfaces like those of tortoise shells, also make. 224 00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:05.799 Ordinary powders useless. 225 00:15:06.360 --> 00:15:09.399 The pliable gel goes deep into the grooves and a 226 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:12.159 camera and a light source are used to expose the 227 00:15:12.200 --> 00:15:12.919 finger ridges. 228 00:15:13.279 --> 00:15:14.360 But the gel has yet to. 229 00:15:14.279 --> 00:15:18.840 Be distributed for wildlife forensic purposes, and Lisa Highwood, who 230 00:15:18.879 --> 00:15:24.480 rescues orphaned pangolins in Zimbabwe and rehabilitates and reintroduces them 231 00:15:24.519 --> 00:15:26.519 into the wild, doubts it'll. 232 00:15:26.279 --> 00:15:27.480 Work in the African bush. 233 00:15:27.879 --> 00:15:30.320 You bring the gail into an environment with a temperature 234 00:15:30.320 --> 00:15:33.120 of eighty eight to one hundred four. 235 00:15:32.960 --> 00:15:35.360 Degrees and it disintegrates. She says. 236 00:15:36.240 --> 00:15:39.639 So far, the biggest successes in wildlife forensics have had 237 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:44.639 nothing to do with identifying perpetrators. Because attorneys often challenge 238 00:15:44.679 --> 00:15:48.159 prosecutors to prove that a seized object is say a 239 00:15:48.240 --> 00:15:52.080 rhino horn or an elephant tusk, Forensic crime lamps run 240 00:15:52.200 --> 00:15:55.799 DNA tests to determine the species beyond a reasonable doubt. 241 00:15:56.360 --> 00:16:02.639 The Trace Wildlife Forensics Network, in Edinburgh based nonprofit has 242 00:16:03.039 --> 00:16:08.120 provided funding and support for Kineta Wetavan's laboratory in Bangkok 243 00:16:08.200 --> 00:16:12.399 since twenty ten, and has since worked alongside governments to 244 00:16:12.559 --> 00:16:22.879 develop DNA testing facilities in Malaysia, Vietnam, South Africa, Botswana, Zombia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Gabon, Zimbabwe, 245 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:28.559 Namibia and Estwantini. Rob Ogden of the University of Edinburgh, 246 00:16:28.559 --> 00:16:32.720 who is a co founder of Trace, recalls a Zombian 247 00:16:33.080 --> 00:16:36.159 colleague mentioning a case in which it was argued that 248 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:39.559 a zebra skin belonged to a striped cow. Now such 249 00:16:39.600 --> 00:16:43.799 blatant assertions are easily demolished in the lab, he demons. 250 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:48.799 He estimates that prosecutors present DNA evidence in wildlife cases 251 00:16:48.879 --> 00:16:53.200 fifty times a year in Thailand and Malaysia. DNA sequency 252 00:16:53.320 --> 00:16:57.440 can also prove that purported wildlife contraband. 253 00:16:57.039 --> 00:16:58.679 Isn't what it appears to be. 254 00:16:59.320 --> 00:17:02.279 Fraudsters often melt horse hoofs into the shape of a 255 00:17:02.360 --> 00:17:06.680 rhino horn, which confect black market prices of twenty thousand 256 00:17:06.680 --> 00:17:10.480 dollars or more a kilo. The DNA is not going 257 00:17:10.559 --> 00:17:13.559 to lie in such a case, Ogden says, it changes 258 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:17.759 the nature of the offense from selling an endangered species 259 00:17:17.839 --> 00:17:23.559 to mislabeling, which is a minor crime. Kyle Ewarts Traces 260 00:17:23.680 --> 00:17:28.000 forensic research manager, last year launched tiger Base, a DNA 261 00:17:28.119 --> 00:17:32.039 profiling system for the endangered big cats. Dozens of tiger 262 00:17:32.119 --> 00:17:36.680 farms in Thailand breed the animals bluffily and offer tourists 263 00:17:36.720 --> 00:17:39.880 the chance to feed adults and cuddle with cubs, but 264 00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:43.000 some farms illegally snatch cubs from the wild and pass 265 00:17:43.079 --> 00:17:46.720 them off as captive bread. A few also serve as 266 00:17:46.799 --> 00:17:53.240 tiger slaughterhouses, clandestinely chopping up the corpses and selling their parts, pelts, claws, fangs, 267 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:57.799 even entire dead cubs and tiger bone wine in jars 268 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:01.799 on the black market in China and Vietnam. Tiger Base 269 00:18:01.880 --> 00:18:05.920 aims to establish a DNA registry of captive tigers throughout 270 00:18:06.279 --> 00:18:10.519 Southeast Asia to trace them to their points of origin, 271 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:16.200 to support investigations into tiger kittens, killers, and tiger launderers. 272 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:20.160 You get DNA profiles for all your captive tigers, and 273 00:18:20.279 --> 00:18:22.359 if there's a new cub on the scene, you can say, 274 00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:25.920 where did this cub come from? The Australian scientists told 275 00:18:25.960 --> 00:18:29.039 me in the past they would say these two parents 276 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:32.240 and you had no way to disprove that, but now 277 00:18:32.279 --> 00:18:36.079 we can. Forensic scientists are also using DNA to crack 278 00:18:36.160 --> 00:18:40.160 down on the illegal trade in paragrine falcons, listed by 279 00:18:40.240 --> 00:18:44.359 sites since the nineteen seventies as a protected species. 280 00:18:44.920 --> 00:18:46.319 In the nineteen nineties, the. 281 00:18:46.279 --> 00:18:49.599 Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, in conjunction with 282 00:18:49.640 --> 00:18:53.039 the UK Police and the Department of the Environment, pioneered 283 00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:56.960 the use of genetics to identify raptor chicks stolen from 284 00:18:56.960 --> 00:19:00.720 the wild. These birds were illegally declared to be captive 285 00:19:00.839 --> 00:19:05.240 bred and were traded commercially. Over a decade later, following 286 00:19:05.279 --> 00:19:10.079 a controversial relaxation of regulations and arise in peregrine prices 287 00:19:10.119 --> 00:19:13.960 in the Middle East, wild chick thefts began to surge. 288 00:19:14.119 --> 00:19:17.599 Lucy Webster of the Department of Science and Advice for 289 00:19:17.920 --> 00:19:22.680 Scottish Agriculture updated the DNA methodology to help the police 290 00:19:22.680 --> 00:19:27.720 crack down. Recently, Webster's DNA lab outside Edinburgh played a 291 00:19:27.799 --> 00:19:32.519 key role in Operation Tantalon, a Scottish police investigation that 292 00:19:32.640 --> 00:19:35.599 snared a gamekeeper and his son in a plot to 293 00:19:35.680 --> 00:19:39.279 launder and sell twenty three wild peregrine chicks and two 294 00:19:39.319 --> 00:19:43.519 eggs to wealthy falcon racers in the Middle East. DNA 295 00:19:43.599 --> 00:19:47.160 sequencing is also being employed to pin down the geographical 296 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:53.039 origins of poached pangolins, elephants, and other endangered species. Investigators 297 00:19:53.119 --> 00:19:56.839 hope the information will help map illegal trading routes, point 298 00:19:56.920 --> 00:20:01.519 to specific organized crime groups, and single out vulnerable subspecies, 299 00:20:02.039 --> 00:20:05.079 but most forensics experts concede that the day when such 300 00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:09.559 data yield actionable intelligence is still far in the future. 301 00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:14.839 Mark Moseley is also looking far ahead. Moseley's latest forensics 302 00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:18.039 adventure is, like his Fingerprint project, a mix of the 303 00:20:18.119 --> 00:20:23.880 visionary and the quixotic. Horrified by photos of several gorilla 304 00:20:23.960 --> 00:20:27.039 hands for sale in an African market, he devised a 305 00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:29.960 method of tracing the endangered apes in their body parts. 306 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:33.720 By doing so, he hopes to pinpoint areas of intense 307 00:20:33.839 --> 00:20:38.160 poshing activity and gather intelligence on criminal gangs involved in 308 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:41.200 the gorilla trade. I thought, how can we do something 309 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:44.440 to identify the remains and create a deterrent, he told me. 310 00:20:44.960 --> 00:20:48.880 Moseley's solution photograph and record the ridge details of the 311 00:20:48.920 --> 00:20:52.480 hands and feet of gorillas when their sedated or being 312 00:20:52.519 --> 00:20:55.880 released into the wild. A few years ago, he spent 313 00:20:56.160 --> 00:20:59.799 months at the National History Museum, preparing for field work 314 00:21:00.279 --> 00:21:05.440 photographing prints from taxa dermid apes or alcohol preserved extremities 315 00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:07.559 dating to the Victorian. 316 00:21:07.039 --> 00:21:09.880 Era or earlier. Later, he moved to the. 317 00:21:09.799 --> 00:21:15.039 London and Chesington Zoos and the Espinal Foundation, where he 318 00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:19.680 captured prints from gorillas sedated for surgery. Moseley's twenty one 319 00:21:19.759 --> 00:21:23.960 year old daughter Mia, designed colorful graphics of gorilla hands 320 00:21:24.000 --> 00:21:28.400 and an individual fingers for an academic paper about the project, 321 00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:34.279 reflecting Moseley's efforts to bring a new generation into conservation. Now, 322 00:21:34.359 --> 00:21:37.799 the Zoological Society of London and the UN's Great Apes 323 00:21:37.880 --> 00:21:41.799 Survival Partnership are aiming to kickstart this in the wild, 324 00:21:41.880 --> 00:21:45.480 Moseley says, although he has accumulated just four sets of 325 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:49.720 wild gorilla prints for his database, he insists he's optimistic. 326 00:21:50.039 --> 00:21:52.480 Once it's out there and everybody becomes aware of it, 327 00:21:52.720 --> 00:21:55.920 the data will drip feed in, he told me in 328 00:21:56.039 --> 00:22:01.200 Wildlife Crime Forensics, everyone seems to be playing the long game. Next, 329 00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:06.079 the world's oldest color photos are still developing. More than 330 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:10.359 a century after the invention of autochromes, the revolutionary pictures 331 00:22:10.400 --> 00:22:13.000 are now decaying and revealing a new kind of Beauty 332 00:22:13.559 --> 00:22:17.400 by Katy Kelliher. In the ear late nineteen eighties, the 333 00:22:17.480 --> 00:22:23.839 late National Geographic Society photographer turned archidivist volkmar Venseil was 334 00:22:23.920 --> 00:22:27.319 delving through storage when he stumbled onto something both breathtaking 335 00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:31.000 and heartbreaking, a box of delicate glass panels, most of 336 00:22:31.039 --> 00:22:34.559 them the sides of postcards displaying color images captured in 337 00:22:34.559 --> 00:22:39.359 the early twentieth century. Many were deteriorating their once crisp scenes, 338 00:22:39.640 --> 00:22:44.839 speckled with ghostly snowflakes, obscured by halos, and otherwise rendered surreal. 339 00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:46.119 By time and neglect. 340 00:22:46.759 --> 00:22:50.000 They were autochromes, the products of a turn of the 341 00:22:50.039 --> 00:22:53.359 twentieth century race to capture the world in all its color, 342 00:22:53.799 --> 00:22:56.319 and now the race was on to preserve them, even 343 00:22:56.400 --> 00:23:01.279 as time transformed them in extraordinary ways. Introduced in nineteen 344 00:23:01.319 --> 00:23:06.559 o seven by French inventors Auguste and Louis Lumiere, autochrome 345 00:23:06.720 --> 00:23:10.240 technology was revolutionary in its day, relying on a light 346 00:23:10.359 --> 00:23:14.559 sensitive silver emulsion covered with a fine layer of potato starch. 347 00:23:15.160 --> 00:23:20.759 That powdery extract, then popular as thickener adhesive and fabric stiffener, 348 00:23:21.119 --> 00:23:24.960 was crucial to capturing the chroma of the area of 349 00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.440 the era, microscopic particles dyed green, orange, and violet were 350 00:23:29.480 --> 00:23:32.359 scattered across a plate and sealed. 351 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:33.640 On with varnish. 352 00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:37.359 When light struck the plate through a camera's open shutter, 353 00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:42.359 each colored granule blocked a range of wavelengths corresponding to 354 00:23:42.400 --> 00:23:46.559 colors of the visible spectrum, exposing the emulsion beneath to 355 00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:50.839 countless tiny dots of variously filtered light. After a few 356 00:23:50.920 --> 00:23:55.000 chemical baths in a dark room, the transparency that appeared 357 00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.160 on glass was seen up clothes a point tolistic mosaic. 358 00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:02.559 But go back and shine light through the plate covered 359 00:24:02.599 --> 00:24:05.920 with another glass layer for protection, and a vivid, painterly 360 00:24:06.000 --> 00:24:11.839 image emerged. National Geographics magazines first full time editor, was 361 00:24:11.960 --> 00:24:16.799 an autochrome champion, commissioning and procuring glass plate works from 362 00:24:17.000 --> 00:24:21.759 photo photographers around the world. Because exposure times were long, 363 00:24:22.200 --> 00:24:26.039 much of early color photography consists of still lifes and landscapes, 364 00:24:26.519 --> 00:24:30.440 but National Geographic acquired dynamic images of life as it's lived, 365 00:24:30.839 --> 00:24:34.680 of crowded bazaars in Albania, of masked dancers in Tibet, 366 00:24:35.079 --> 00:24:40.480 of riders atop brightly garbed elephants in India. Autochromes together 367 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:45.319 with similar processes involving glass plates remained the primary means 368 00:24:45.359 --> 00:24:48.640 of making color photos until the nineteen thirty five debut 369 00:24:49.039 --> 00:24:52.880 of cootochrome film, with its layers of emulsion that were 370 00:24:52.920 --> 00:24:57.799 themselves photosensitive. In the film era, the Society's glass plates 371 00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:02.279 were not carefully preserved. Wenzel, during more than forty years 372 00:25:02.319 --> 00:25:05.880 as a National geographic field photographer, saw value in the 373 00:25:05.920 --> 00:25:09.240 old photos, while many of his peers were focused on innovation. 374 00:25:10.079 --> 00:25:12.960 When the Society thinned its collection in the nineteen sixties, 375 00:25:13.319 --> 00:25:16.200 he rescued plates from the trash, taking them home for 376 00:25:16.279 --> 00:25:22.640 safe keeping an eventual return to the archive. Others simply 377 00:25:22.680 --> 00:25:26.000 moldered forgotten until Wenzel rediscovered. 378 00:25:25.319 --> 00:25:26.960 Them in off site storage. 379 00:25:27.240 --> 00:25:31.119 Upon becoming the Society's first official photo archivist. 380 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:32.559 In nineteen eighty. 381 00:25:32.920 --> 00:25:36.640 Wenzel made it a mission to preserve, catalog and exhibit 382 00:25:36.680 --> 00:25:40.759 the old photos and today National Geographics early color photography 383 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:45.079 collection comprises some thirteen thousand plates, including one of the 384 00:25:45.079 --> 00:25:49.440 world's largest assemblages of autochromes. The largest is at the 385 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:53.960 muse Albert Kahan outside of Paris. But, as with many 386 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:59.599 remaining early color photos, national geographics have been altered by light, heat, humidity, 387 00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:04.359 and improper handling plates have cracked and fissured. Oxidizing silver 388 00:26:04.440 --> 00:26:09.920 particles have created radiant amoeba shaped orange blotches on the 389 00:26:09.960 --> 00:26:16.759 autochrome descendants, known as dou Fet colors. Violet bruises are 390 00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:21.480 evidence of vinegar syndrome, a chemical decay affecting layers of 391 00:26:21.519 --> 00:26:26.079 film between glass named for its telltale scent and contagious 392 00:26:26.359 --> 00:26:29.279 from plate to plate. Vinegar syndrome is a plague amongst 393 00:26:29.319 --> 00:26:34.039 photographic archives, says Sarah manco director of the National Geographic 394 00:26:34.119 --> 00:26:39.119 Society's Photo and Illustration Archives. It all sounds rather tragic, 395 00:26:39.400 --> 00:26:41.920 but the blemishes also have given many of the plates 396 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:45.759 a strange new beauty. No longer pristine documents of history, 397 00:26:46.079 --> 00:26:50.400 they become testaments to the ravage of time, abstracted, fragmented, 398 00:26:50.440 --> 00:26:54.559 and obscured, like so many ancient and admired artifacts. What's 399 00:26:54.640 --> 00:27:00.680 morris As image archivist Rebecca DuPont, witnessing the deterioration, a 400 00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:04.920 process that will only ever play out once, offers lessons 401 00:27:04.920 --> 00:27:08.000