Insects can provide homicide investigators with critical clues about time and place of death, but they can play an equally important role in solving wildlife crime, says SFU criminologist Gail Anderson.

Anderson, a forensic entomologist, is taking that message to classrooms of park officials, wardens and conservation officers to teach them how to collect evidence that can help stamp out crimes involving animals.

A co-director of SFU’s Centre for Forensic Research, Anderson is part of a team of wildlife crime investigation experts who collaborate to teach Wildlife Field Forensics (WFF), a workshop aimed at improving training methods for those working in the field.

The workshop is normally based and taught in Montana, but for the past two years the wildlife crime fighters have become a travelling road show, taking their expertise to seminars as far off as Katmai, Alaska (in June) and the Mohave Desert (last fall).

At their next gig from Aug. 8–12 in Lethbridge AB, participants will learn about firearms evidence, DNA collection, field necropsy techniques, decomposition-stage assessment for time of death, and the collection of tire and boot marks.

“Insects don’t care whether they are feeding on a dead human being or a dead bear, so forensic entomology can be just as useful in a wildlife crime case as in a homicide,” says Anderson.

“Unfortunately, conservation officers are not nearly as aware of forensic evidence as police officers. It’s something I really want
to change.”

Authorities are increasingly cracking down on wildlife crimes, which means more offenders are seeking experienced lawyers, says Anderson.

She adds, “The evidentiary standards for what we do are just as high in a wildlife crime as in a human homicide.”