This book recounts how a small group of American and British scientists go to East Africa to try to save elephants from poachers and to find how many remain. They end up fighting with poachers, large and small groups, who try to kill them. Based on real research and attempts to save African elephants, this book introduces the reader to some of the strangest characters in the world, the kind of people who can't survive in normal society and, with their odd behavior, retreat to wilderness.