At the Australian Museum we are able to use DNA-based Wildlife
Forensics to identify an unknown sample to the animal species it
came from. What is DNA-based Wildlife Forensics? DNA-based
wildlife forensics is where we extract DNA from an unknown
sample and try to match it to a known sample from our reference
collection. Why is it useful? This technique is particularly
useful when animal tissue is unidentifiable to species because:
- It has been treated (i.e. tanned to make leather) - It has
been mutilated (i.e. only blood etc remains) - It has been
filleted (i.e. commercially available meat) - When an animal is
not well-developed enough to identify to species and there is no
possibility for it will develop into an adult with identifiable
characters We are involved in projects such as: - Identification
of seized shark fins to the species they were taken from using
DNA. - Identification of animal materials/parts seized by
Australian Customs or Australian Quarantine to determine if they
are from protected specie