Rhinoceros poachers are being relentlessly pursued through analysis of the products they have stolen from areas of the world where these Pleistocene-era animals are still holding on to life. The New Scientist Print Edition (September 6, 03) reports that Crawford Allen, enforcement support coordinator for Traffic, has announced that new genetic and chemical tests on Asian medicines and on Yemeni ornamental daggers are now so sensitive that they can be used to determine not only the species of animal (white black or Javan rhino) whose horn material is being tested, but also the actual game reserve on which the animal lived before it was illegally killed. Thus, both the poaching sites and the ultimate commercial destinations can now be identified, and trade routes between them can be determined and interrupted in a more efficient manner than before. These steps are crucial to ending a trade in the products of animals so endangered that their continued existence is in doubt unless such trade can be stopped altogether.

IWMC congratulates all those engaged in this effort to protect black, white and Javan rhinos, and to aid law enforcement advances in forensic science towards this end.

Nearly two years ago, a handful of "sea turtle protection organizations" petitioned the US Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA to find the Loggerhead turtles of Florida eligible for classification as distinct population segments under the Endangered Species Act, and further, to designate their habitat as "critical" under the ESA. Neither of these requests has been granted. The latter was indeed a "critical" decision, because had federal agencies agreed, fishing and shrimping activities in the Gulf of Mexico would have been severely impacted, if not shut down. Dr. Bill Hogarth, NOAA assistant administrator, duly noted that the Loggerhead is a threatened species that deserves and is already receiving, protection of all its subpopulations. He repeated the opinions and resolve of both agencies and their scientists, that the subpopulations and their nesting habitats are important to the overall survival of the species, and that they are all being protected in the overall plan for species welfare. Both NOAA and the US Fish and Wildlife Service are to be congratulated for making their decisions on Loggerhead turtle survival programs in a manner consistent with the best science, and with respect for the other components of turtle habitat.