New Ivory Scanner Will Make Illegal Sales Harder
A new scanner developed by Thai scientists will supposedly be able to tell whether ivory has been sold legally or illegally.
It is normally difficult to distinguish legal ivory from illegal. Image Credit: USFWF Mountain Prairie (Flickr)
The hand held scanner will be able to tell whether the ivory came from an African elephant – which would be illegal, or an Asian elephant, which may or may not be legal.
It is believed to have a 93% accuracy rate, and are able to detect earth minerals, which suggest the geographical source of the tusk.
It is illegal to trade ivory products internationally.
There are only about 43,000 wild elephants left in Asia, with the numbers ever dwindling. Demand for ivory has played a large part in the decline of the species.
Read more on this story at National Geographic.
View ThaiLawForum’s YouTube video on the illegal ivory trade in Thailand here:
