Genetic Based Species Identification and Tracking of the Geographic Origin of a Fully Tanned Animal Skin in Wildlife Forensics

Abstract

Species identification and assign the geographic origin from processed products based on morphological traits is a challenging task in wildlife forensics due to lack of the reference specimens. Here, we report species identification and assign the geographical origin of a fully tanned animal skin using complete mtDNA cytochrome b gene. A nucleotide sequence of 1140 bp cytochrome b was generated from the DNA extracted from the small piece of skin from the inner ear (IEP-01). GenBank BLAST search of the unknown Cyt b (1140bp) sequence against the full range of published Rangifer tarandus has facilitated in identification of species and ascertaining the species of origin with high meta probability (100%). We determined that the seized unknown skin is wild reindeer (R.t. groenlandicus) and has been originated from Canada, where this Least Concern species under the IUCN red list. We propose to establish genetic database across the range of the species threatened due to illegal trade to determine hotspots of poaching.