Page 40 - Veritas Vol 3, Issue 2

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TERROR BEHIND

THE TASTY

INTRODUCTION

Illegal poaching generally refers to the unlawful hunting, capturing, or

killing of wildlife animals that are protected by law. Endangered species are

poached for meat due to cultural beliefs and traditions, exotic delicacies, and
the illegal wildlife trade, in which the animals are killed, and their meat is

sold on the black market to meet the demand from consumers.

Continuous poaching of species is a major threat to biodiversity, which may
lead to further endangerment of species. Mostly, pangolins, cape pangolins,

turtles, sharks, tokay geckos, tortoises, eagles, hawks, owls, ducks, geese,
songbirds, parrots, quails, pheasants, and other exotic birds are illegally

poached for meat. To control such illegal poaching, law enforcement
agencies appointed many volunteers to collect information on illegal wildlife

trade and trafficking, and they often raided restaurants and markets to

identify the selling and use of illegally poached meat.

However, the major issue they face during such raids is the species

identification of meat. It is sometimes a challenge for officials to identify the

species using morphological traits, especially when the samples are too old,
degraded, or cooked. Generally, DNA-based identification using

mitochondrial genes like Col, Cytochrome B, 16S rRNA, and 12S rRNA is a
useful tool for species identification.

Here’s a case study in which species identification was done from a sample of

cooked meat.

VERITAS VOLUME: 3, ISSUE: 2 WRITER: SRI INEYA K