Britta Jaschinski's Image

Britta Jaschinski (Germany/UK) looks on as a crime scene investigator from London’s Metropolitan Police dusts for prints on a confiscated tusk.

Britta was spending time at the CITES Border Force department, where confiscated animal products are tested.

Trying to find fingerprints on an elephant tusk used to be a futile exercise. Conventional techniques could not detect prints because the porous ivory absorbs them in about 24 hours.

A new magnetic powder enables experts to get fingerprints from ivory up to 28 days after it was touched. This increases the chances of identifying those involved in its illegal trade.

Editor, Writer and Competition Judge Roz Kidman Cox said “this is a picture that brings together artistry, science, crime and journalism. The composition is precisely set to tell a story, one that’s instantly understood. It’s lit to perfection, with the fingerprints clear, and there’s care in the way the tusk is displayed, as a thing of great value and poignancy.”

The International Fund for Animal Welfare has made special kits for border forces. They’ve distributed the kits to more than 200 forces from 40 countries, leading to four cases that resulted in 15 arrests.

The kit has also been tested successfully on tiger claws, rhino horn and pangolin scales.