Serpent's source: Determining the source and geographic origin of traded python skins using isotopic and elemental markers
| Autor: | Jessica A. Lyons, Awal Riyanto, James F. Carter, Patrick W. Aust, Mumpuni, Daniel J. D. Natusch, Ujang Tinggi, Ngo Van Tri |
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| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Provenance Ecology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology Viet nam Wildlife Small population size Biology biology.organism_classification 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Wildlife trade Geographic origin Captive breeding Python (genus) Ecology Evolution Behavior and Systematics Nature and Landscape Conservation |
| Zdroj: | Biological Conservation. 209:406-414 |
| ISSN: | 0006-3207 |
| Popis: | Commercial production systems for wildlife increasingly involve closed-cycle captive breeding, in which effective regulation requires methods for verifying the provenance of stock. We compared the isotopic and elemental compositions of skin from wild and captive-bred pythons raised under different diet regimes in Indonesia and Viet Nam to examine the efficacy of using these techniques as a means of determining the source and origin of skins entering international trade. We found significant differences in both isotopic and elemental markers between wild and captive-bred snakes, as well as those from different geographic origins. Combinations of both techniques were able to discriminate between diet treatments and geographic origins with up to 100% accuracy. Moreover, our experimental manipulation of python diets confirmed that the application of specific diet regimes (or the addition of known elemental markers) for captive-bred snakes can create signatures specific to those animals, vastly improving the efficacy of these methods. Our study strongly suggests that the analysis of isotope ratios and elemental markers offers a powerful tool for verifying the provenance of reptile skins entering trade – but these methodologies will be most applicable (and cost-effective) for species with small populations of genuine conservation concern, rather than for large volume trade in species for which there is little conservation risk. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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