Bryan christy elephants trunk

Investigative journalist Bryan Christy came up with an ingenious idea.

An expose of the worlds most notorious wildlife dealer, his special government friend and his ambitious new plan.

Armed groups help fund operations by smuggling elephant ivory.

Heartbreaking footage shows a dead elephant 'with burn marks on its trunk' being dragged through an Indian village by a pickup truck after.

Forensic Technology Helps Case Against West African Ivory Dealer Accused as a Trafficker.

Armed groups help fund operations by smuggling elephant ivory....

National Geographic put a GPS tracker inside a fake ivory tusk - here's where it went

In the September 2015 issue of National Geographic, journalist Bryan Christy's story, "Tracking Ivory," began with a brilliant idea: Design artificial elephant tusks, complete with GPS devices, and monitor where they travel.

With help from experts, the tusks became a reality and journeyed across Africa.

While Central Africa has lost 64% of its elephant population in just a decade from poaching, effectively tracking and eliminating the illicit ivory trade will do substantially more than just protect wildlife.

The illegal profits from this trade help support some of the most violent militias, terrorist organizations, and paramilitary groups throughout eastern Africa.

The map below shows the tusks' path:

Courtesy of National Geographic

592 miles, 53 days

To start, Christy asked taxidermist George Dante and Quintin Kermeen, founder and president of Telemetry Solutions, to lend their exper