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Like a lot of people, I was a big fan of the CSI TV series when it first came out. I was impressed by how the show turned the somewhat dry world of science into a spinetingling whodunit. Admittedly, science in any form has never been my forte. Grade 12 chemistry was very nearly my Waterloo, and I've always shied away from anything that smacked of logic or methodical, linear thought. What I loved about CSI was that, implausible though Hollywood's idea of crime-solving science is, it made boring old science sexy.
While much has been written in this genre, I couldn't help but be excited when I spotted Laurel Neme's Animal Investigators on the shelf of my library. The concept of crimes against wildlife, as a science just as valid and important as CSI, has been rapidly evolving, and Neme's book offers an eye-opening glance into a real-life CSI lab for wildlife.
Within the walls of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Forensics lab is an enormous collection of animal bits and pieces. While some bear resemblance to their original owners - bits of leathery bear gallbladders, shriveled and desiccated as prunes huddle on a shelf, just over from stacks of rainbow-coloured bird feathers from the Amazon - most of these unfortunate victims of crime look nothing like the animals they originated from. A magnificent African elephant has been reduced to an elegantlycarved ivory ashtray, while a rare and beautiful tiger from the jungles of the Asian...