Winner
Brent Stirton
Getty Images
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"GOD'S IVORY"
LULIMBI, EASTERN DRC, FEBRUARY 2012: ICCN Conservation Rangers deploy young bloodhounds for the first time in Virunga to investigate the corpse of a recently killed sub-adult male elephant in Lulimbi, Eastern DRC. The elephant had obviously been killed for its ivory, a trend on the rise across the DRC due to militia groups that makes the Rangers job very difficult. The young dogs reacted with horror at the elephant corpse, their noses are estimated to be 3 million times more sensitive than a humans. After initially recoiling, the lead dog Lily, just over a year old, took the scent and followed it for several kilometers in the exact direction of a village on Lake Edward long suspected in poaching cases in Virunga. Militia groups in Eastern DRC have long benefitted from illegal ivory poaching.
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