Save the Elephants said he was instrumental in exposing the ivory poaching crisis and documenting the destruction of over half of Africa's elephants in a single decade, leading up to a crucial intergovernmental decision to ban the international trade in ivory in 1989. Whether sitting quietly among elephants, poring over maps of their movements, or circling above a herd in his beloved aircraft, that glint in his eye was there, the group's CEO Frank Pope said.