Animals

Stray DNA is all around us. It could revolutionize conservation

Environmental DNA helps scientists keep tabs on wildlife like never before

An illustration showing a scientist recording different colored strains of DNA around. The setting is a forest with a beach and river with different animals such as a bird, dolphins, deer and a butterfly.

Plants and animals constantly shed DNA into the environment. Studying eDNA can help answer many different conservation questions.

Sam Falconer

By Erin Garcia de Jesús

On a warm, sunny day in April, biologists David Duffy and Jessica Farrell prepare to motor down the Matanzas River on a small boat to catalog the area’s aquatic life. Ripples signal the river’s lazy flow along Florida’s northeastern coast. Birds fly overhead, some settling onto mangroves occupying the river’s edge.