Wildlife can now be detected by sniffing DNA in the air

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Just as DNA traces on an unwashed glass or a carelessly discarded cigarette butt can place a suspect, so can DNA shed by a creature as it goes about its business

traces on an unwashed glass or a carelessly discarded cigarette butt can place a suspect as having been in a particular place, so canshed by a creature as it goes about its business. Ecologists have thought of this, and it certainly works for things like animal droppings. But these, too, must first be detected and collected—and they will identify only the animal that dropped them. What would really speed things up would be a means of sampling an entire habitat at one go.

Dr Lynggaard’s zoo of choice was Copenhagen’s. She put testing stations inside some of the animal houses and the rainforest house, and also near several outdoor enclosures. She let the water-percolation and large-fan systems run for 30 minutes. The small-fan system was allowed a more generous 30 hours to do its stuff.

Both groups scored palpable hits. All three of Dr Lynggaard’s methods detected 30 mammal species living nearby. Some, such as white rhinos, golden lion tamarins and Eastern grey kangaroos, were exhibits in the zoo. But many were not. Her equipment also noted, for example, red squirrels, hares, brown rats and domestic cats. Dr Clare’s findings were similarly encouraging. Her group not only logged 17 nearby zoo animals, but also eight other types of mammals and birds.

Dr Roger carried out his study in collaboration with colleagues from Lund University in Sweden when he was working there before his move to Zurich. Lund is just across the Oresund bridge from Copenhagen, and it was a system similar to Dr Lynggaard’s water-percolation approach that he used. One of his chosen sites was the roof of Lund’s ecology department—a well-established location for moth surveillance using conventional light traps.

 

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Just a sneak peak for the World Govt lol 🤪

There's film of a likely thylacine sighting from just a few years ago, that's where I'd start with this kind of technology.

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