Into the Wild

Abstract

Since the emergence of DNA-based human identification techniques in the 1980s, DNA technologies have continued to advance, offering the potential to identify a perpetrator from a variety of evidentiary samples. In recent years, a multitude of DNA extraction methods and kits have been developed explicitly for forensic purposes, many of which aim to maximize the amount of DNA that can be recovered from compromised samples collected at a crime scene. In addition to crime scenes involving human perpetrators, forensically relevant methods and technologies can be applied to wildlife cases including identification of nuisance animals or in the case of an animal attack.