Detect and Trace — DCCEEW's AI X-Ray Pilot for Catching Wildlife Smugglers at Sydney's International Mail Gateway

Researchers at Macquarie University and the Taronga Conservation Society, backed by Australia's DCCEEW and Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, developed 3D X-ray CT scanning paired with machine-learning classifiers to detect wildlife concealed in international mail and luggage.

The work aimed to give DCCEEW's Wildlife Crime Special Investigators a screening tool that could flag concealed live animals in mail parcels at Sydney's international gateway, building on a controlled 2022 validation study.

A first controlled validation, published in 2022, scanned 294 curated images across 13 species; DCCEEW investigators then trialled a Rapiscan RTT®110 scanner at the Sydney Gateway Facility between July 2023 and January 2024, scanning parcels that Australian Border Force staff had already flagged as suspicious, with no negative controls.

The 2022 lab validation reached an 82% detection rate with a 1.6% false-alarm rate; in the real-world field trial across 18 seized consignments (48 parcels, 116 animals across five genera, 87% reptiles), the best-performing algorithm correctly flagged concealed wildlife in 56% of scans — a sharp drop from the lab figure. The wider DCCEEW crackdown intercepted more than 200 parcels containing 780 native animals between June 2023 and early 2025, a 545% rise in interceptions, and in February 2026 a linked investigation led to an 8-year sentence for a wildlife trafficker, the longest ever given to an Australian wildlife smuggler.

Researchers recommend a cloud-based mobile app to speed field use and formal investigator training on the companion pXRF provenance device, whose scan numbers were limited by staff availability, and note the approach depends on 3D CT scanners that are "not available everywhere."