In 2015, a hunting dog was accidentally killed in Germany. He sustained serious gunshot injuries during a wild boar drive hunt.
No hobby hunter comes forward
Hobby hunters found the severely injured dog 650 metres away from the nearest posted wildlife killers. Since the dog's owner had a legal right to financial compensation, no hobby hunter voluntarily admitted to being responsible for the dog's death.
During an emergency operation, however, the veterinarian found wild boar hairs in the dog's wound. This suggested that the bullet had first struck a wild boar and then the dog. An innovative research study describes how cutting-edge techniques were used.
Finding the culprit through genetic profiling
The researchers collected the wild boar hairs along with muscle samples from the 19 wild boars that had been killed that day. They were able to successfully match the hair DNA sample with one of the 19 wild boar tissue samples — with 99.97% certainty.
Potential for prosecuting wildlife crimes
Similar to human cases, individual-specific genetic profiling in wildlife forensics can be a powerful tool for solving wildlife crimes.
