ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Ecol. Evol.
Sec. Conservation and Restoration Ecology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fevo.2025.1533703
This article is part of the Research TopicDiagnostic Tools and Research Applications to Combat Wildlife Trade IssuesView all 7 articles
A mammoth task: Stable isotope analyses as a tool to pr event illegal tr ade of elephant ivor
Provisionally accepted
Maria E. A. Santos1,2*
Pavel Toropov3Pihu Agarwal1,2Pierre Archimede Jonathan Frichot1,2Hannah Bethany Tilley4Wilson Wan Zhongyue1Jovy Chan5
David Michael Baker1,2*- 1School of Biological Sciences, Coral Biogeochemistry Laboratory, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 2Conservation Forensics Laboratory, University of Hong Kong, School of Biological Sciences,, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 3Communications and Public Affairs Office, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 4School of Biological Sciences, Applied Behavioural Ecology & Conservation Laboratory, University of Hong Kong, School of Biological Sciences, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
- 5World Wide Fund for Nature - Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
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Although mammoth ivory was claimed as a substitute to elephant ivory, there are several issues with the current methods to differentiate the two ivory, which provided a loophole to laundering and illegal trade. To contribute to developing efficient tools to distinguish ivory samples, we applied a relatively cheap and fast protocol using stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ13C), hydrogen (δ2H), nitrogen (δ15N), oxygen (δ18O), and sulfur (δ34S). We compared the isotope ratios of the two ivory types and found statistically significant (p-value<0.01) differences in the Wilcoxon tests for δ2H, δ18O, δ13C, and δ34S, but no significant difference for δ15N. There was no overlap between δ2H and a small overlap for δ18O, while δ13C, δ15N, and δ34S of most mammoth samples were within the larger isotopic range values of the elephant samples. The PCA also pointed to a higher contribution of δ2H (96.9%), followed by δ18O (2.7%), to differentiate the ivory types. Our results showed SIA as an efficient tool to distinguish elephant and mammoth ivory, and we recommend using a multi-element SIA approach focusing on δ2H and δ18O. While it is essential to address the social issues related to the ivory trade, including reducing human-elephant conflict and increasing financial support to Siberian carver communities, alternatives for natural ivory should also be sought, combined with strict policy changes to combat illegal trade and protect the African and Asian elephant populations.
Keywords: Conservation Forensics, Illegal trade, Laundering, Mammoth, Stable isotope analyses, Permafrost, trafficking, Tusk
Received: 24 Nov 2024; Accepted: 30 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Santos, Toropov, Agarwal, Frichot, Tilley, Wan Zhongyue, Chan and Baker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Maria E. A. Santos, School of Biological Sciences, Coral Biogeochemistry Laboratory, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
David Michael Baker, School of Biological Sciences, Coral Biogeochemistry Laboratory, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, SAR China
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