. >> sam wasser is the director of the center for conservation biology at university of washington. when it comes to solving the mysteries of the illegal trade, wasser has created a coalition of scientists, virtual detectives using techniques in:dna extraction from ivory, genetic mapping through dung sampling and radio carbon dating. this multi pronged approach attacks a criminal enterprise that's brought the majestic african elephant to the brink of extinction. >> there's probably only 450,000 elephants left so the whole focus of our lab is to really to try and use dna assignment of large ivory seizures. >> singapore 2002. 6 and a half tons of ivory seized. the largest in the country's history. roughly 650 elephants were killed for this haul of ivory. but where in africa did the ivory originate from? they assume this much ivory must come from multiple sources. authorities send the sample to wasser's lab for analysis. >> right now from anywhere in africa, we can assign a seizure of ivory closer than 300 kilometers to where it came. >> wasser and his team get to work. the first step