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Can DNA testing unite this young elephant with its family?

We know how DNA is often used now to help people who were adopted as children to trace blood relatives. Well that same technology is being used by the wildlife carers of a young elephant in Burkina Faso. Nania is a critically endangered forest elephant who became separated from her herd when she was only three months old in 2018. There are hopes her mother can be found and they can be reunited and Nania released back into the wild.

CΓ©line Sissler-Bienvenu, is the francophone Africa director for IFAW, the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Reims, France.

(Photo: Nania, the young elephant from Burkina Faso, 2021 Credit: IFAW)

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Duration:

3 minutes