Piece Description

In the past 20 years, poachers have killed nearly one million elephants. Poachers have driven the giant pachyderms -- which are prized for their ivory tusks -- onto the endangered species list in Africa and parts of Asia. But today, elephant poachers may have a new enemy - the elephant's sense of smell. Elephants are being trained to track down poachers themselves. An elephant's trunk is an amazingly complex limb, with thousands of muscles. It connects to a nose that's equipped with an extremely sensitive sense of smell. Combine that sense of smell with the elephant's legendary memory, and you have an effective tool for catching poachers. And elephants can reach remote places that four-wheeled vehicles can't. Rory Hensman, an animal trainer in South Africa, has trained elephants for years. He's been training a small group of them to track poachers. Today, Hensman is waiting for the green light from national park officials to use his trained elephants to help protect endangered elephant populations from poachers.