With help from experts, the tusks became a reality and journeyed across Africa.

While Central Africa has lost 64% of its elephant population in just a decade from poaching, effectively tracking and eliminating the illicit ivory trade will do substantially more than just protect wildlife. The illegal profits from this trade help support some of the most violent militias, terrorist organizations, and paramilitary groups throughout eastern Africa.

To start, Christy asked taxidermist George Dante and Quintin Kermeen, founder and president of Telemetry Solutions, to lend their expertise to the project.

Real ivory is tough to impersonate. First of all, it won't melt when you hold a flame to it. Genuine ivory also has "Schreger lines" — small imperfections on the cut-end of the tusk, much like rings on a tree trunk, that show the elephant's age.