As complicated as it is, the conventional Crime Scene Investigation portion of an Illicit Wildlife Trafficking investigation is the easy part. The identification of the latent prints on the weapon that fired the bullet that killed the endangered animal is based on many, many years of research and dozens of cases that produced the case law governing such testimony today.

The FBI lab, or the local or state lab analyzing forensic evidence has basically two functions: it examines evidence it receives, identifies it, and compares known and unknown samples to state conclusively that the two articles either match or do not match. The results of this analysis is used to connect the suspect, victim (perhaps), and crime scene.  

The forensic lab uses a wide array of scientific instruments and practices, and a considerable amount of horse sense and deductive reasoning to solve the laboratory part of the investigation, but - unlike often seen on TV - the scientists do not leave lab to contact suspects, interview witnesses, etc. In essence, they often work in a very cloistered environment and usually have little direct knowledge of the case; that is for the officers and investigators in the field.

The identification of the plant or animal that is the subject of an investigation is much different than a typical investigation, especially when the identification pertains to only a piece of the victim species. A ranger may be able to go to court and testify convincingly that the defendant was illegally in possession of a certain type of crocodile, but can he do the same thing when the crocodile was made into a pair of shoes? For that it takes the support of a very specialized field of forensic science, and a very specialized crime laboratory.

Enter the Clark R. Bavin National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory, the only crime laboratory in the world devoted exclusively to wildlife. The experts at the lab readily admit that wildlife forensics is still very much a new science; in some situations is still in a 'learn as you go' mode. 

You can spend hours on the lab's excellent web site; it is not the mission of the Forensic Ranger site to reinvent the wheel. It is our mission, however, to provide useful links and examples of ways in which environmental crimes might be solved by forensic science.