Wildlife crime scene investigators

We visit the only wildlife CSI forensics lab in the world as it helps to prosecute traders of illegal rhino horn.


The rhinoceros has been hunted to near extinction as part of an illegal trade in endangered animals that has become the fourth largest criminal industry in the world. Now it has a champion. We see how a CSI team in the United States is using its forensic skills to target the hunters.

This illegal industry is worth $19bn, while only 30,000 rhinos remain in the wild today.

We visit the US Fish & Wildlife Service Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, the world's only crime lab devoted to wildlife. It investigates cases for the US as well as 180 other countries belonging to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Ken Goddard, its director and founder, spent 30 years investigating human crimes before turning his expertise to helping endangered species.

"Police work