Differentiation of Galliformes feather samples for species identification using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and chemometric techniques: Application in wildlife forensics

Abstract

Feathers are most important parts of avian and commonly found at scene of crime. The identification of species from feather samples could help in crime investigation particularly wildlife trafficking cases. Analysis of such evidence can provide a link between the criminal and the crime scene and thereby be utilized as associative evidence in the court of law. In the present study, twelve feather samples of Galliformes bird has been analysed using ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. Chemometric methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discrimination Analysis (LDA) were performed on the obtained spectra for objective interpretation of results. PC1, PC2, PC3, and PC4 were able to explain a variance of 93 %, 4 %, 2 %, and 1 % respectively. The score plots showed separate clusters for all twelve bird species. The LDA model classified all the twelve species into their respective categories with a 100 % accuracy. Overall, the presented methodology has shown a potential for application in forensic casework