Week of Undergraduate Excellence
Late April, 2017
Oral Presentation, 15 minutes
Understanding Chimpanzee Trafficking with Population Genomics
In recent years, scientists in the fields of population genetics and ecology realize how genetic information can be tools to affect conservation policy[1]. However, during this time, environmental crime has only grown, becoming the fourth largest illegal crime sector and funding illegal cartels and terrorist organizations. One broad category in environmental crime is that of the illegal wildlife trade, and it involves the illegal poaching of animal for their meat and body parts as well as the illegal capture and trafficking of animals to be pets. In Cameroon, we see both of these activities taking place, with endangered chimpanzees being poached for bushmeat trade, and baby chimps being captured and trafficked internationally to be pets. Using a comprehensive genetic dataset of ~10,000 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms and a variety of geospatial representations of human activities, we’ve developed a pipeline that can estimate the origins of chimpanzees confiscated from the illegal wildlife (and thus captured illegally) with a previously unseen resolution, evaluate how human activities such as logging; road topology; distance to protected areas; and industrial logging contribute to these illegal poaching events, and then project poaching risk over the entirety of the chimpanzees’ range in Cameroon. This work has the potential not only to better assess where conversation resources could be most efficiently deployed, but it also allows us to identify new hotspots for chimpanzee poaching, and craft policy that targets specific industries contributing most to the illegal wildlife trade.
[1] Genetic assignment of large seizures of elephant ivory reveals Africa’s major poaching hotspots. Wasser et al. (2015). Science
Late April, 2017
Oral Presentation, 15 minutes
Understanding Chimpanzee Trafficking with Population Genomics
In recent years, scientists in the fields of population genetics and ecology realize how genetic information can be tools to affect conservation policy[1]. However, during this time, environmental crime has only grown, becoming the fourth largest illegal crime sector and funding illegal cartels and terrorist organizations. One broad category in environmental crime is that of the illegal wildlife trade, and it involves the illegal poaching of animal for their meat and body parts as well as the illegal capture and trafficking of animals to be pets. In Cameroon, we see both of these activities taking place, with endangered chimpanzees being poached for bushmeat trade, and baby chimps being captured and trafficked internationally to be pets. Using a comprehensive genetic dataset of ~10,000 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms and a variety of geospatial representations of human activities, we’ve developed a pipeline that can estimate the origins of chimpanzees confiscated from the illegal wildlife (and thus captured illegally) with a previously unseen resolution, evaluate how human activities such as logging; road topology; distance to protected areas; and industrial logging contribute to these illegal poaching events, and then project poaching risk over the entirety of the chimpanzees’ range in Cameroon. This work has the potential not only to better assess where conversation resources could be most efficiently deployed, but it also allows us to identify new hotspots for chimpanzee poaching, and craft policy that targets specific industries contributing most to the illegal wildlife trade.
[1] Genetic assignment of large seizures of elephant ivory reveals Africa’s major poaching hotspots. Wasser et al. (2015). Science