captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> pelley: when you're leon panetta, it's a small world, and a dangerous one. the secretary of defense travels on a flying command post, where he can reach every american warplane, submarine and missile silo. how do you launch the nuclear response from this airplane? i mean, do you pick up that phone? >> panetta: don't touch anything, scott. ( laughter ) >> pelley: a sense of humor

helps when you're fighting multiple wars. but there are rewards, like the brick from osama bin laden's compound, a gift for panetta, the man who ran the mission. ( fireworks exploding ) >> kroft: it's the american adaptation of the roman coliseum, a spectacle that manages to package all the primal instincts-- sex, violence, tribalism, courage, joy and disappointment. >> it's no good! it's no good! >> kroft: with all due respect to ringling brothers, right now the n.f.l. is the greatest show on earth, and commissioner goodell is the ringmaster. >> wow! >> logan: where can you find some of the best big game hunting in the world? it's a place that may surprise you. to get the best view, we flew by helicopter over this vast terrain. from the air, we could see herds of african antelope and zebra charging across the wide open spaces.

it looks remarkably like africa, but it's not-- this is texas. >> kroft: i'm steve kroft. >> stahl: i'm lesley stahl. >> safer: i'm morley safer. >> simon: i'm bob simon. >> logan: i'm lara logan. >> pelley: i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." so -- tell me again what happened. i was downstairs making coffee, and we heard it.

it just came crashing through the roof, out of nowhere. what is it? it's our ira. any idea what coulda caused this? maybe. i just sorta threw a little money here, a little money there. and i loaded up on something my dentist told me was hot. yeah. ♪ follow the wings. yeah. mid grade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback right now, get 5% cashback at gas stations. it pays to discover. [ driver ] what do i want? ♪ i want horsepower.

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but leon panetta has held the toughest jobs in washington and quietly done what seems impossible. before bin laden, panetta helped balance the federal budget. in a long career, he had been budget director and white house chief of staff. but by 1997, he left washington and went home to california. it was 12 years later that president-elect obama made an odd request-- would panetta lead the c.i.a.? panetta had never worked in intelligence, but it was his team that put a navy seal in bin laden's bedroom. this summer, the president made panetta secretary of defense, in charge of managing three million employees, fighting three wars, and stopping iran from building an atom bomb. this last tuesday, before the president spoke to the nation, he had a few words for leon panetta.

>> president barack obama: good job, tonight. good job. >> pelley: with nearly the entire government assembled for the state of the union address, maybe ten people in the room knew what that was about. the navy's seal team six had just rescued two hostages, including an american woman. this time, the action was in somalia. in how many countries are we currently engaged in a shooting war? >> leon panetta: it's a good question. ( laughs ) that's... you know, it's... >> pelley: you have to stop and count. >> panetta: got to stop... i'll have to stop and think about that, because, you know, obviously, we're going after al qaeda, wherever they're... they're at. and clearly, we're... we're confronting al qaeda in pakistan. we're confronting the nodes of al qaeda in yemen, in somalia, in north africa. >> pelley: when you're secretary of defense, it's a small world, and a dangerous one. panetta was covering it when we caught up with him on a trip to

afghanistan, where he has 90,000 troops; iraq, where the war was ending; and libya, where he'd helped depose qaddafi. panetta travels on a flying command post, where he can reach every american warplane, submarine and missile silo. if the president ordered a nuclear war, panetta would launch it from what they call the "doomsday plane." the president would reach you on this aircraft. >> panetta: the president would... would reach me on this aircraft, and very possibly be on this aircraft to be able to direct what happens in that situation. >> pelley: we noticed panetta's spartan compartment is built for two: two chairs, two bunks, two phones-- for him and the president. but on this trip, panetta wasn't worried about russia's thousands of nuclear weapons; he was thinking of what he would do if iran built just one. >> panetta: the united states-- and the president's made this

clear--does not want iran to develop a nuclear weapon. that's a red line for us. and it's a red line, obviously, for the israelis, so we share a common goal here-- if we have to do it, we will do it. >> pelley: what is "it"? >> panetta: if they proceed, and we get intelligence that they're proceeding, with developing a nuclear weapon, then we will take whatever steps are necessary to stop it. >> pelley: including military steps? >> panetta: there are no options that are off the table. >> pelley: we were surprised to hear how far he thinks iran has come. >> panetta: the consensus is that, if they decided to do it, it would probably take them about a year to be able to produce a bomb, and then possibly another one to two years in order to put it on a deliverable vehicle of some sort in order to deliver that weapon. >> pelley: of course, panetta knows more than he tells. maybe he knows who's bombing iranian scientists; why iran's missile facility mysteriously

blew up; or how a computer virus wrecked iran's uranium enrichment plant. judging from the u.s. spy drone that fell in iran, america and its allies are waging war without sending thousands of troops. the doomsday plane is laden with secret gear. we can't show you most of it. it's so heavy, the air force refueled it twice in the night sky over the atlantic. it turns out the lightest thing on board was the heart of the man with a world of worry. how do you launch the nuclear response from this airplane? you pick up this phone? >> panetta: don't touch anything, scott. ( laughter ) >> pelley: leon panetta is rarely far from... ( laughter ) ...an eyelid-collapsing, ground- shaking, belly laugh. it's involuntary, and to people around him, it's reassuring that, with lives at stake, he stays in touch with his humanity

and where he came from. leon panetta lives on the farm where he grew up. he and his brother planted these walnut trees 65 years ago with their father, and the panettas stick to their roots in northern california. he and his wife sylvia raised three boys here, one of whom served in afghanistan. panetta's parents had arrived here from italy without a word of english. did you pick the walnuts? >> panetta: used to pick them all the time. my dad used to have a pole and hook, and shake every one of these branches, and hit the walnuts. and my brother and i used to be underneath collecting the walnuts, putting them in sacks. and, you know, my dad often said i was well trained to go to washington because i'd been dodging these nuts all my life. ( laughs )

>> pelley: his mother wanted a pianist. but panetta orchestrated a run for congress and, for 16 years, represented his home district. he became president clinton's budget director and worked with congress to balance the federal budget for the only time in the last 42 years. a lot of people were surprised when your name came up for director of central intelligence. >> panetta: i was kind of surprised, as well. i spent most of my life working on budget issues and thought that, you know, that would more likely be an area that they might want me. but the president said, "i need somebody who can restore the credibility of the c.i.a." and for me, that represented a challenge. >> pelley: the first challenge ordered by the president was to rethink the search for osama bin laden. there hadn't been a good lead since the u.s. lost him in 2001 in the mountains of tora bora, afghanistan.

within a year and a half of panetta taking over as director of central intelligence, the u.s. tracked al qaeda couriers to a house in a town called abbottabad, deep inside pakistan. panetta sent satellites, drones, officers and spies to watch it for eight months, but they were never sure that bin laden was there. on april 30 last year, mr. obama and panetta made a point of being seen at the white house correspondents dinner. panetta's belly laugh was heard at every presidential punch line, but both men knew they'd just pulled the trigger. seal team six would launch in 16 hours. ( laughter ) >> panetta: the risks were enormous-- you know, going in that far; the prospect of detection; the prospect that, you know, one of these helicopters might go down; the fact that, once they arrived there, we might, you know, have

a shooting war with pakistanis take place. >> pelley: with all of those risks you were facing, you recommended going ahead with this to the president. why? >> panetta: you know, in the 40 years i've been in government, this, for me, was probably the most remarkable operation that i was a part of, because everybody played their role in a very effective and responsible way. this was the best case we had on bin laden since tora bora. and because of that, because for ten years we had run into dead ends trying to track bin laden down, i thought, for that reason alone, we had a responsibility to act. >> pelley: this is panetta running the mission from c.i.a. headquarters. he acted without telling our pakistani allies, because panetta couldn't figure how bin

laden lived more than five years, undetected, about a mile from pakistan's military academy, its west point. elements of the pakistani government knew he was there? >> panetta: i personally have always felt that somebody must have had some sense of what... what was happening at this compound. don't forget, this compound had 18-foot walls around it. 12-foot walls in some areas, 18- foot walls elsewhere, a seven- foot wall on the third balcony of the house. it was the largest compound in the area. so you would have thought that somebody would have asked the question, "what the hell's going on there?" >> pelley: is that why you recommended we not tell the pakistanis that we were coming? >> panetta: we had seen some military helicopters actually going over this compound. >> pelley: pakistani military helicopters? >> panetta: and for that reason, it concerned us that if

we, in fact, brought them into it, that... they might give him... give bin laden a heads up. >> pelley: i appreciate the diplomatic problems you have, mr. secretary, but everything you're telling me in this interview indicates that the pakistani government knew he was there and that that's what you believe. >> panetta: i don't have any hard evidence, so i can't say it for a fact. there's nothing that proves the case. but as i said, my personal view is that somebody somewhere probably had that knowledge. >> pelley: and there is one thing more secretary panetta noticed after the raid-- there was no escape route from the house. it's as if the occupant was expecting plenty of warning. today, the house is also short one brick. hanging on the wall of his office, panetta has a memento that c.i.a. officers brought him. labeled it bin laden's code name, "'geronimo'-- abbottabad, pakistan." before the raid, president obama nominated panetta for secretary of defense.

he took over seven months ago, arriving these days at the pentagon at dawn and working well into the night. last weekend, panetta was aboard the u.s.s. "enterprise" in the atlantic ocean. they even let the boss clear one of his planes to land. >> panetta: roger, ball. >> pelley: he may be directing shadow wars in more places than he can count, but one of his biggest challenges now is to manage the massive budget cuts in his big-ticket military ordered by congress. >> panetta: the reality is that we now are facing, as a result of congressional action, having to take down the defense budget by, you know, well over $450 billion over the next ten years. >> pelley: and that will mean what? >> panetta: we'll have to make some very tough decisions about how we do this. the last thing i want to do is to make the mistakes of the past.

we still have to protect the best military in the world, we still have to have a military that protects us against a lot of threats that are out there-- terrorism, iran, north korea, nuclear proliferation, problem of cyber attacks, rising powers like china. >> pelley: that's quite a list for the globe-trotting secretary of defense, but the toughest part of the job is right here at his desk. in your long career in government, you've never had to make decisions of life and death. >> panetta: in some ways, in this job, i am doing that every day. and the toughest thing in this job, frankly, is writing the condolence letters to the parents of those young men who are killed in action, and that loss-- having been a parent of someone who is stationed over there, you know what that means. but i also say to them, "you know, your son or daughter is

really a true hero and patriot, because they were willing to give their life for their country. and that means that they'll never be forgotten." and i hope that's... that's some measure of comfort for them. because, in the end, it's the only comfort i have is to know that these kids, when they put their lives on the line, are helping america be strong for the future. >> cbs money watch update sponsored by: >> good evening. facebook is expected the file paperwork this week for a public offering that could raise $10 billion. the world economic forum in davos ended today with a euro zone debt crisis dominating discussions. and "the grave" won the weekend box office with $20 million. i'm jeff glor, cbs news.

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>> kroft: there are only two institutions in this country with the power to create almost limitless amounts of money. one is the federal reserve, the other is the national football league. the fed is run by ben bernanke, the n.f.l. by commissioner roger goodell-- and goodell is having a much better season. in the midst of an economic slump that's seen most american businesses struggle, the n.f.l.'s revenues are soaring, and its television ratings are through the roof. by a number of measures, it is the most successful entertainment enterprise in the country. and with all due respect to ringling brothers, right now the n.f.l. is the greatest show on earth, and commissioner goodell is the ringmaster. ( fireworks exploding ) >> goodell: when we bring people into our stadium, or if they're watching on television, we want them to say, "that was the greatest entertainment i've ever seen." >> kroft: it is the american

adaptation of the roman coliseum, a spectacle that manages to package all the primal instincts-- sex, violence, tribalism, courage, joy and disappointment. there are agile 300-pound gladiators, spear throwers and acrobats. the best ones are multi- millionaires often in the employ of billionaires fortunate enough to own one of the n.f.l.'s 32 franchises. they pay commissioner roger goodell to manage their $10 billion-a-year business, resolve their disputes and protect their most valuable asset: the game. now how much power do you have? >> goodell: i don't look at it in those terms. ( laughs ) i have to make a lot of decisions that aren't in the best interests of individuals, whether they be owners, club executives, players. but i have to make sure the

integrity of the game is protected at all times. >> kroft: and who decides what the integrity of the game is? >> goodell: that's my job. >> kroft: he is c.e.o., negotiator, arbitrator, disciplinarian, enforcer, cheerleader and custodian of a national pastime, and no one's errand boy. he is paid $10 million a year to tell the owners who hired him-- some of the richest, smartest, most competitive people in the country-- what's best for them, or that he has to suspend one of their top players, or even fine them for some infraction. you have to take action against your bosses from time to time. >> goodell: that's one way to look at it. >> kroft: and how do they like it? >> goodell: they don't like it, but they also understand my responsibilities. i don't expect to try to get people to like everything i do. i want them to respect what i do. you know where you are when you walk into this stadium. >> kroft: on a trip to baltimore for a playoff game week before last, the commissioner acknowledged the challenge and said it required a certain

amount of political acumen. >> goodell: you have 32 teams, and most of our big decisions have to be made on the basis of 24 votes. so a lot of what i have to do is go and convince at least 24 owners that we have a good solution. it's a lot like being speaker of the house because you have to go out and get those votes. >> kroft: and after nearly six years on the job, goodell seems to have won the complete trust of his bosses, who, this past week, extended his contract to the year 2019. steve bisciotti owns the baltimore ravens. >> bisciotti: i lose a lot of my arguments to roger, but i never hold it against him because i know, he... you know, it's like kids fighting. you know, i might go and complain, but he's usually sticking up for another son, and that other son's usually right. so it doesn't stop me from complaining, but i get my... i win my fair share. >> kroft: i wish we could get people in washington to lead the way roger goodell leads. robert kraft owns the new england patriots. >> kraft: his job is impossible

because dealing... it's not like a normal board of directors. it's 32 members of the board of directors who each think they know how to run the league better than he does, so it requires a good sense of balance. >> kroft: and there is plenty for the owners and the players to be happy about. last july, after months of contentious negotiations, goodell and demaurice smith of the n.f.l. players association signed an unprecedented collective bargaining agreement that will bring a decade of labor peace and prosperity for both sides. >> smith: sometimes you have to butt heads a little bit in order to make sure things work out. >> kroft: but in the end you were happy? >> smith: look, if i wasn't happy, i wouldn't have signed it. >> kroft: why do you think the league's been so successful? >> smith: you know who's going to win this game? neither do i. and you know what? it's fantastic. >> kroft: and it all got a lot

more fantastic last month when goodell and the league signed a record-shattering nine-year deal with the television networks, including cbs, in which the owners and the players will split nearly $6 billion a year in revenue, following a season in which virtually all of the top-rated tv shows were n.f.l. games. goodell managed to wring more money out of the deal than most people thought possible. i hear you're a pretty tough customer. i hear that you can be cold and confrontational if necessary. >> goodell: i think you have to be in this job from time to time. i take my responsibilities very seriously, and i want to make the league better. and to do that, you can't make everybody happy. >> kroft: at age 52, he has spent his entire career working at the n.f.l., starting out as an intern who once drove nfl commissioner pete rozelle. and this is the only job he ever wanted. like most fans his age, his love of the game is shaped by its history and by his early memories. he grew up in washington,

rooting for the baltimore colts and johnny unitas, and he has never forgotten it. when we were in baltimore, he stopped to pay tribute at the statue of unitas that now stands outside baltimore's stadium. aren't you supposed to touch his shoe or something? >> goodell: oh, i'd love to. i'd love to. ( cheers ) he was a great one. >> kroft: he's your hero? >> goodell: yeah, he was special. what a player. >> kroft: he used to go to the colt games with his father, the late congressman and u.s. senator charles goodell. he was one of the first republicans to speak out against the vietnam war in a speech before congress, and a copy of it hangs on the wall of the commissioner's office. it earned his dad a place on richard nixon's enemies list and cost him the next election. >> goodell: that demonstrated to me courage, not to be afraid of taking a principled stand regardless of the consequences. my father taught that to us by example, and that has stayed with me since i was a child.

>> kroft: goodell used to campaign with his father, so he's not so shy about mingling with the fans and listening to their opinions about the game. this is a completely different experience than sitting at home and watching it on tv. >> goodell: yes, it is, but that's part of our biggest challenge going forward is, how do we get people to come to our stadiums and experience stadiums? because the experience is so great at home. >> kroft: he is a regular visitor to tailgating parties around the league and will occasionally sneak into the cheap seats to see what the fans' experience is like from there. a quarter of the league's revenues-- about $2.5 billion-- still come from ticket sales, with another $2.5 billion coming from licensing fees on everything from footballs and league apparel to shot glasses and ice scrapers. bud light is reportedly spending a billion dollars over six years to be the official beer of the n.f.l. but the real key to the league's success is its unorthodox

business model. under league rules, the teams are required to share most of their revenue with each other, which is always a sticking point with some of the most successful franchises and the more politically conservative owners. i mean, that's socialism, isn't it? >> goodell: it is a form of socialism, and it's worked quite well for us. so we try to combine socialism and capitalism. how can we socialize by sharing our revenue in a way that will allow every team the ability to compete? >> kroft: it's not just socialism. the n.f.l. is essentially a cartel, albeit a legal one, thanks to a limited exemption from antitrust laws granted by congress more than 50 years ago. you've got 32 competing teams, but they share 80% of the revenues. you operate a draft for new players. there are salary caps. you depend on public tax money to help fund your stadiums. >> goodell: well, we look at it as trying to create the most competitive league we can. one of the things we want every fan to feel in the country is

hope when the season starts that their team can end up holding that super bowl trophy. and one of the stats we're most proud of in the last nine years, we've had at least one team go from last to first. >> kroft: the result is a financially engineered equality that allows a small town team in green bay, wisconsin, to compete with a metropolis like new york. it produces lots of close games and those unscripted dramas that are essential to the n.f.l.'s appeal. every monday morning, in the league's new york command center, commissioner goodell and top officials conduct the ultimate monday morning quarterback session, dissecting and discussing the weekend's most controversial plays. >> carl johnson: so what we're going to have here is an inadvertent whistle. >> kroft: this was the first time cameras have ever been allowed into the meeting. on this monday morning following the first round of the playoffs, two blown calls that were

irreversible because of early whistles from the referees drew the attention of goodell and vice president of officiating, carl johnson. >> johnson: we gave the ball to detroit. it should have gone back to the fumbling team. >> goodell: do we know who blew the whistle? >> johnson: yes, the line judge blew the whistle. the line judge blew inadvertently. he thought it was a forward pass, should not have and... >> goodell: from a mechanics standpoint, he shouldn't have been blowing that whistle, though. >> johnson: from a mechanics standpoint, he shouldn't have blown the whistle. >> kroft: afterwards, we spoke to goodell, carl johnson and head of operations ray anderson. what's the point of these meetings? >> goodell: to understand where we've made mistakes, where we can improve. >> kroft: if you make a mistake, what do you do? call? do you have to call the owner? >> johnson: normally, they... they call me. ( laughter ) >> kroft: they call you. >> goodell: you don't have to wait to hear from them. >> anderson: you don't have to wait very long, steve. believe me. >> kroft: the commissioner hears about a lot of things from owners, coaches and players, often about his tough policies on personal conduct in and out of uniform-- everything from penalties for excessive

touchdown celebrations, to multi-game suspensions for unsportsman-like conduct, and illegal helmet-to-helmet tackles. you not only control their lives off the field, now you're controlling their lives on the field-- the way they play the game, the way they tackle, the way they hit. is... >> goodell: well, it's some... >> kroft: ...all of that necessary? >> goodell: i think it is. being associated with the n.f.l. is a privilege, it is not a right. and when you're here, you have to meet that bar. >> kroft: concussions have always been a part of the n.f.l. this used to be called "getting your bell rung"; now it's treated as a serious brain injury, and doctors, not coaches or players, decide if someone is fit to return to the game-- as long as someone catches it. >> johnson: okay, commissioner, now this game, we had a concussed player that we didn't know about, and this guy didn't tell anybody. >> kroft: it's the man making the tackle on this play. number 42, amari spievey, suffered a concussion here and should have gone to the sidelines, but the officials missed it, and he decided not to tell anyone about his symptoms so he could stay on the field. is that common? >> goodell: unfortunately, it is

far too common. >> kroft: why is it do you think people don't report it? >> goodell: some of it's warrior mentality. some of it's wanting to be out there, to contribute. but that's part of our education, is to make sure the players understand the seriousness of the issue and that they have to report these injuries. >> kroft: the league and the players have committed $100 million to fund concussion research following some bad publicity and several lawsuits, and they will finally provide more than $1 billion in additional funds to improve pensions, as well as medical and disability benefits for retired players. >> goodell: hey, crew. >> kroft: with no game this sunday, goodell and his staff began final preparations for next sunday's super bowl in indianapolis. >> goodell: are these streets going to be closed? you didn't tell me what the weather is going to be like. >> woman: the halftime show, as we all know, will be madonna. >> goodell: has anyone seen that yet? ( laughter ) >> woman: seen what? ( laughter ) >> kroft: the game is a much- anticipated rematch of the 2008 super bowl between the new york

giants and the new england patriots, and, if the current trend holds, it will attract the largest american television audience ever, somewhere north of 163 million people. when it's over, there will be no more football until next summer, leaving the fans exactly where the n.f.l. wants them: wanting more. i'm phil mickelson, pro golfer. if you have painful, swollen joints, i've been in your shoes. one day i'm on top of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculis,

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>> i think our last count is 125 different species here in texas. >> charlie seal is a fourth generation rancher. and the executive director of the exotic wildlife association based here in the heart of texas hill country. the ranchers liked the novelty of these strange animals on their properties. but what started as a curiosity has evolved into a major achievement in wildlife conservation, by helping to

bring back three african antelope from the brink of extinction, according to charly seale. >> seale: our members own more numbers of rare and endangered species than any other association in the world. three of our biggest successes have been the scimitar-horned oryx, the addax, and the dama gazelle. our numbers have absolutely just skyrocketed in the last... last 15 to 20 years. >> logan: so, these animals are thriving in texas while they're still endangered or extinct in their native lands? >> seale: yes. >> logan: so are they still endangered, in your view? >> seale: absolutely not. not in texas. >> logan: how did thousands of texas ranches become home to the largest population of exotic animals on earth? it's thanks to trophy hunters, like paul, who come here in the thousands to hunt these animals every year, sold on the idea of an african hunting experience in texas. it's open season on close to 100 species of exotic game all the time here because exotic animals are considered private property.

paul allowed us to come with him as he went on this hunt, if we agreed to use only his first name. >> paul: i've been looking forward to this hunt for several months now and i'm just pumped. here, he and a guide are searching for a scimitar-horned oryx for him to take home as a trophy. if they find one, it'll cost paul $4,500. other animals, like this dama gazelle, cost around $10,000. and the rarest, a cape buffalo, has a $50,000 price tag. exotic wildlife has become a billion-dollar industry in texas, supporting more than 14,000 jobs. for two days, paul and his guide searched this 30,000-acre ranch just two hours outside san antonio for an oryx, but they didn't find any. animal rights groups accuse the ranchers of making the hunts too easy, but that's not what we witnessed in this case. six months later, we met up with paul when he came back to try his luck again on another ranch.

we were curious to know whether it bothered him that the animal he was hunting is officially extinct in the wild. do you care about this species? do you care if this species goes extinct? >> paul: oh, yes, i do. >> logan: why do you want to kill them? >> paul: the money that i spend to hunt these animals keeps these animals alive on these ranches. >> logan: you may be surprised to learn that the u.s. government agrees with that. for years, it's allowed the scimitar-horned oryx and two other endangered antelope to be hunted on u.s. soil. the u.s. fish and wildlife service has concluded that "hunting provides an economic incentive for ranchers to continue to breed these species," and that "hunting reduces the threat of the species' extinction." on ranches like this, they say they don't allow more than 10% of a herd to be hunted per year. >> hey, guys, guys. >> logan: after six hours, paul and his guide have finally

spotted some oryx. they were about 150 yards away, and they thought they had found a suitable target. he got ready to take a shot. >> okay, is that the one? are you sure? ( gunshot ) >> logan: paul hit the target with one bullet. >> seale: hunters are the... are the main conservationists in this whole equation. >> logan: can you call yourselves conservationists when your purpose, your intent, the thing that's driving it is to hunt the animals and to kill them? >> seale: absolutely. that's... that's why these animals thrive. it's because of that... that value that they have to the hunting community. >> logan: you know, just because people are willing to pay large amounts of money for those trophies doesn't make it right. >> seale: i can't let these animals just freely roam around my ranch. i can't do it. i won't do it. >> logan: do you love these animals? >> seale: absolutely. >> logan: how can you kill something you love? >> seale: i can do that for the simple reason that i know it's

for the welfare of every one of those animals. you sacrifice one so that many more are born and... and raised, from calves all the way up to the big trophy male or the big trophy females that... that we have. >> priscilla feral: i think that's ludicrous. i think it's immoral. and i don't think anybody's entitled to do that. >> logan: priscilla feral is president of friends of animals, an international animal rights organization. for the past seven years, she's been fighting in court to stop these rare african antelope from being hunted in texas. >> feral: they're breeding these antelopes, they're selling the antelopes, and they're killing the antelopes. and they're calling it "conserving" them. they are saying it's an act of conservation, and that's lunacy. >> seale: you would rather they did not exist in texas at all? >> feral: i don't want to see them on hunting ranches. i don't want to see them dismembered. i don't want to see their value in body parts.

i think it's obscene. i don't think you create a life to... to shoot it. >> logan: so, if the animals exist only to be hunted... >> feral: right. >> logan: ...you would rather they not exist at all? >> feral: not in texas, no. >> seale: our biggest enemy are the animal rights people. they don't understand what we do. >> logan: what's to understand? i mean, you're hunters. you hunt these exotic animals. that's pretty simple. >> seale: it is, but there are a faction of people out there that would just as soon see these animals go extinct as to have us use them for sp... to hunt. and after all, that is the bottom line. that's what these animals are all about. that's why they are here in the numbers that they're here today. >> david bamberger: you're at the first place that this... this is where it all began. >> logan: 83-year-old texan david bamberger has spent more than 30 years fighting to save one of these antelope, the scimitar-horned oryx, from extinction.

he brought us to where it all began, in this small pasture, which he calls "the sahara," on his 5,500-acre ranch. >> bamberger: here they go. >> logan: look at that. they're beautiful. oh, look at the babies in the front. you almost have to remind yourself that this is not africa; it's johnson city, texas. this beautiful animal has horns that can grow as long as four feet, and resemble the curved blade of a scimitar. it's believed by some to have inspired the myth of the unicorn. >> bamberger: they tell me it's the only africa antelope known to be able to kill a lion. >> logan: they vanished decades ago from the deserts of egypt, senegal, chad-- all the places where they first walked the earth more than two million years ago. >> bamberger: they wouldn't be here and alive if we hadn't taken some action 30 years ago. >> logan: in the late 1970s,

bamberger offered to devote more than 600 acres of his property to save an endangered animal, at his own expense. american zoos sent him nearly all of the remaining known genetic stock of scimitar-horned oryx in the world, and from that, he raised hundreds of animals. he's since sent some to african reserves for eventual reintroduction into the wild, but he believes the best hope to sustain the species today lies on the texas range. >> bamberger: i've got ranchers that i started them out on with half a dozen animals that got 200 now. >> seale: but if you're a conservationist, and you've given up your land, you've given up thousands, millions of dollars to save this species. yet you're not against hunting them? >> bamberger: well, i wouldn't do it here. i'm not fond of it at all, but i'm wise enough, smart enough to know, if there's no incentive,

if altruism is the only incentive, you're not going to get a great deal of participation on someone whose livelihood depends on bringing in dollars. >> pat condy: you'd think you were in africa. look at the giraffe sitting there. >> logan: we turned to one of the world's top conservationists, pat condy, who lives in texas, to find out what he thought. >> condy: that's the scimitar- horned oryx. altogether, on different ranches, many different ranches, there are somewhere between 6,000 and 10,000 of these animals. >> logan: pat condy has devoted his life to saving animals, and he showed us around the fossil rim wildlife center, outside of dallas, which he runs. it's a world leader in breeding rare and endangered animals. >> hello, giraffe. >> logan: and it's also a place where tourists can get closer to these beautiful creatures than they ever could in the wild. do you think that texas ranches are saving animals from extinction? >> condy: there's no question

about it, that they are. >> logan: what gives you the confidence to say what you're saying? >> condy: what gives me the confidence is when you look at the numbers, the animal numbers, okay, and you see that they're not declining, that they're either stable or growing. >> logan: the numbers-- you can't argue with that? >> condy: when you're talking about conservation, it's the numbers that are the bottom line. >> logan: but for priscilla feral, the bottom line is that these animals should not be hunted. she's helped create a reserve in senegal for 175 oryx, and in court, she's winning the legal battle she's been fighting for years to stop them from being hunted in the u.s. in the coming weeks, a new rule issued by the u.s. fish and wildlife service will take effect, making it a crime to hunt the scimitar-horned oryx, and two other endangered antelope, without a federal permit that will be difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. >> seale: just since the

announcement of that rule, the value of those animals has probably dropped in half. you've got to understand, i'm a rancher to make a profit, just like any business. >> logan: how does this rule change affect that? >> seale: i will say that, in five years, you'll see half the numbers that you see today. and i would venture to guess, in ten years, they'll be virtually none of them left. >> feral: the future for oryx is africa; it's not texas. >> logan: can the future not be both? don't they have a greater chance of survival the more of them there are? >> feral: in their native lands. >> seale: regardless of where they are. >> feral: i don't think you can say regardless of where they are-- a texas hunting ranch is not the same as being in a reserve in senegal. >> condy: put the hunting aspect to one side, and take a 50,000- foot view over this-- this resource of a species that is extinct in the wild is going to disappear now from texas, slowly

but surely. >> seale: so who's winning the day here? >> condy: i don't think anybody's winning the day. one thing is for sure-- they are losing it. those species are losing it. >> coming up, this cbs sports update. at the australian open, novak djokovic won his fifth major title over rafael nadal. at 5 hours and 53 minutes, it was the longest grand slam final in the open era. and in ncaa basketball, ohio state with a big win over michigan. notre dame knocked off uconn, handing the huskies their third straight loss. for more sports news and information, go to cbssports.com. this has been steve overmier reporting.

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