Data collected from more than 800 chimpanzees taken from the wild could help conservationists return them to their natural habitat and combat illegal poaching of endangered apes.
Researchers at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Barcelona extracted genomes from hair and faecal samples of chimps, using similar techniques previously applied to tracing the origins of ivory illegally sold on the black market.
Scientists catalogued the genome of chimpanzees in the wild across 48 sites in 18 countries to create a genetic map, to pair with data collected from captive animals, or those confiscated from smugglers.
Once the genetic code is matched, researchers said they could find a chimp’s home in an area within 90 kilometres.
Mimi Arandjelovic, a biologist who worked on the research, said more samples from a wider geographical base would encourage a wider prosecution of traffickers.
“In countries where keeping wild, non-domesticated animals is legal, authorities probably have little way of obtaining samples from these animals,” she said.
“However, there is a large network of sanctuaries across the world housing apes, while apes and wildlife products are often confiscated at ports or seized in shipments.
“That is where our work would be primarily targeted.”
Researchers were inspired to carry out the study after similar work by Dr Samuel Wasser, a University of Washington biologist, who identified unique ivory DNA that helped police the illicit international trade.
By identifying the two primary areas from which ivory was sourced, law enforcement was able to put limited resources into critical areas, rather than across the vast continent, to eliminate the largest amount of illegal killing.
“Working with elephants offers challenges we do not need to deal with,” Ms Arandjelovic said.
“Elephants can travel hundreds of kilometres in their lifetime, so geo-localisation is trickier.
“Male chimps stay either in their natal groups their entire life, or females migrate away from their natal group at maturity to some other group nearby.
”Being able to sample from large ivory confiscations and finding matching tusks in different shipments allows identification of poaching hotspots; with chimps orphans are usually confiscated one, or few, at a time although some larger confiscations of skulls and bushmeat projects have been done.”
Although in its early stages, testing procedures have been developed in partnership with the Pan African Programme (PanAf) at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthroplogy in Leipzig, Germany. These are aimed at understanding the cultural diversity of chimpanzees across 40 populations.
Tomas Marques-Bonet, a scientist whose laboratory analysed 828 chimp samples, said collecting genomic data could provides clues on how the chimpanzee population is structured.
“The only limitation (of this method) is the logistics of the operation,” he said.
“So far, the lab technique can be done in any molecular lab with the proper equipment, but still needs collection, transportation and a report, which is less than ideal.
“The cost greatly varies, but as a rule of thumb is in the low hundreds of euros per sample.”
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