Project · 09
National Geographic · Explorer
Warlords of Ivory
The investigation · Central Africa
Follow the tusk.
Find the network.
Investigative journalist Bryan Christy sets out to expose how the illegal ivory trade funds some of Africa's most notorious militias. With a satellite tracker concealed inside a lifelike tusk, the film follows ivory from poaching country toward the armed networks moving it across borders.
- Presented by
- National Geographic Channel
- Series
- Explorer
- Role
- Director · Correspondent
- Format
- Documentary feature · 60 min
- Recognition
- News & Documentary Emmy nominee
Full feature · National Geographic
Track the trade.
Evidence in motion
A hidden route made visible.
The investigation moves from the rangers defending Garamba National Park to the routes used by armed groups across Central Africa. Field reporting, embedded access, and the signal from the artificial tusk connect the killing of elephants to a larger system of violence, money, and power.
Photography by Brent Stirton.
Selected credits
Reporting from the front line.
- Director & correspondent
- J.J. Kelley
- Investigative reporter
- Bryan Christy
- Executive producer
- Brooke Runnette
- Producers
- J.J. Kelley · Brian Lovett · John Heminway
- Directors of photography
- J.J. Kelley · Toby Strong
- Editors
- Seth Skundrick · Jennifer Honn
- Production company
- National Geographic Studios