Wildlife smuggling is a global epidemic. Worth billions of dollars a year, the illicit trade is driving animals such as rhinos, elephants, pangolins, abalone, and sharks toward extinction.

With criminal networks getting more sophisticated than ever, new high-tech approaches are being developed to identify them and bring perpetrators to justice. (Read "Why Are Most of Tanzania's Elephants Disappearing?")

In the meanwhile, here are 11 of the most promising new technological tools for detecting wildlife crime, nabbing poachers, and stepping up law enforcement:

DNA analysis has proved a game changer in wildlife crime investigation. Pioneered by Samuel Wasser, of the University of Washington, in Seattle, DNA analysis of ivory, when compared with DNA-based mapping of elephant populations, allows investigators to pinpoint