Trip Jennings
Trip Jennings was a filmmaker and National Geographic explorer central to the Elephant Ivory Project. Contemporary reporting links him to both the 2010 Bangkok work on the ivory trade and the 2011 DRC expedition. He also wrote field updates from Congo and helped collect dung samples during the later stages of the expedition.
Andy Maser
Andy Maser was Jennings’s expedition partner and collaborator through EP Films. National Geographic reporting identifies Maser throughout the DRC field phase, including the travel into TL2, the search for elephant sign and the eventual collection of viable samples.
Dr Samuel Wasser
Dr Samuel Wasser, then director of the University of Washington’s Center for Conservation Biology, led the scientific work that gave the expedition its forensic purpose. His team compared DNA from seized ivory with geographic reference DNA collected from elephant dung across Africa. The Elephant Ivory Project aimed to help fill gaps in that reference map.
John Hart
John Hart was a long-term conservation researcher in the DRC and a central field partner during the TL2 expedition. National Geographic’s reports describe Hart travelling with Jennings and Maser, helping plan sampling routes and connecting the visiting team with local research infrastructure.
Terese Hart
Terese Hart was also a long-term Congo conservation researcher and played a major role in helping the expedition assess where and how it could safely work. Early field reporting describes the team meeting her in Kinshasa before deciding whether to attempt TL2.
Local Congolese researchers, trackers and field teams
The expedition depended heavily on local expertise. National Geographic reports describe local scientific assistants, trackers, guides and team leaders locating elephant sign, moving through remote forest and collecting samples. In one important moment, a separate field team returned with the first five dung samples while Jennings and Maser had still found none themselves.
Those details are important to preserve because the work was not carried out by a two-person visiting expedition alone.
Partner organisations and networks
Surviving reporting references the University of Washington Center for Conservation Biology, the Harts’ Congo research network and the Lukuru Foundation in connection with the scientific and field context. National Geographic and EP Films provided much of the surviving public record through reporting, photography and film.
Continue to the Project Timeline, Expedition Journal or Press and Coverage.