Mapping nature’s past
A sophisticated new map of Africa, using a little-known element, helps reveal where rare animals – exploited by the illegal wildlife trade – have been stolen from.
A wild chimpanzee (c) www.georgelogan.co.uk
A major new scientific paper, involving Born Free’s Head of Conservation, offers a powerful new tool for conservationists, in our fight against wildlife trafficking.
Scientists have put together a map of ‘strontium’, a naturally occurring material, for most of the continent of Africa. The map can help identify the origins of wild animals and their parts – from baby chimps to pangolin scales, confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade anywhere in the world, and discover trade hotspots.
Born Free’s Dr Nikki Tagg, who was involved in this study’s data collection, explains how nature held the secret to this vitally important new tool, and could hold many more!
Dr Nikki Tagg
Nature offers so much. Our ecosystems provide us clean air and water, food, and other natural resources and raw materials on which we all depend. Nature helps to combat climate change, regulate weather patterns and within them we can find medicines and new discoveries.
But nature also still holds many secrets yet to be uncovered.
A huge study involving over 100 scientists working across the breadth of Africa has led to the production of a unique ‘geologic fingerprint’ map of most of the African continent. The map can be used to identify the most likely country or region of origin of artefacts, plants, animals and people that may have left Africa and ended up elsewhere in world.
Published in the journal Nature Communications in December 2024, the study analysed over 2,000 samples collected at forest and savannah field sites from 24 countries across Africa. The samples included snail shells, bones and soil. Many of these field teams were participating in the Pan African Programme: The Cultured Chimpanzee (Panaf), (coordinated by the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology), which aims to increase our understanding of behavioural diversity in chimpanzees, and by extension help answer questions about human cultural evolution.
Born Free’s partner in Cameroon, Association pour la Protection de Grands Singes (APGS), took part in the Panaf study, walking transects, managing camera traps, observing wildlife and collecting a wide variety of data from the Dja Landscape for many months, to contribute to the team’s investigation of chimpanzee ecology and culture, plus many other important uses.
The bones and snail shells collected were analysed for their ‘strontium isotope ratios’. Strontium is an element that is naturally present in bedrock and soil, and comes in several different chemical forms, called isotopes. The ratio of these isotopes to one another varies across space, and living organisms develop the same isotopes in their tissues as those found in their environment.
This means that by comparing the unique strontium patterns of artefacts, animals or people against this new geologic fingerprint map, we uncover the history of a continent – and this has potentially groundbreaking applications in wildlife conservation and beyond.
Maps showing: a) Bioavailable strontium isoscape for sub-Saharan Africa. b) Standard error map for the strontium isoscape. c) Mobility-oriented parity metrics.
One such important application of this map is helping descendants of those affected by the historic transatlantic slave trade, who lack knowledge of their ancestral origins, to trace which region of Africa their ancestors hailed from.
For conservationists, we can employ this information, for example, to determine the country of origin of a baby chimpanzee that has fallen victim to the illegal wildlife trade.
Tropical, biodiverse Africa hosts a multitude of unique wildlife species, many of which face the threat of extinction. Poaching, driven by the demand for meat and body parts in the illegal wildlife trade, poses a significant threat to their survival. For instance, elephants are often targeted for their tusks, and pangolins for their scales.
Until now, the ‘strontium map’ has been patchy and incomplete, as a lack of scientific equipment, and logistical and safety issues of working in some parts of Africa, has limited the ability of scientists to obtain samples.
Now, animals or their parts confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade anywhere in the world can be analysed for their strontium isotope ratios and compared against the map. This enables law enforcement agencies and conservationists to locate potential geographic hotspots of poaching and target areas more effectively to protect threatened wildlife.
Born Free works tirelessly to protect wildlife and natural habitats. You can help us to keep them safe in perpetuity. Time will tell what other amazing secrets nature might hold for us!