Wildlife Forensics Lab

In the Field
Traditionally, almost every part of a walrus is used by Native Alaskans: the meat is for food, the intestines for raincoats, the skin for boats, and the ivory for tools and a means of money or exchange. It was therefore quite distressing when, in the late 1980s and 1990s, hundreds of headless walrus began to wash up ashore in Alaska. The Fish and Wildlife Service Forensics Lab was called in to help determine whether the walrus were being illegally killed for their tusks. They discovered that though some of the animals were killed wastefully, others were not.

• Investigating Animal Crimes
• More about Animal Investigators