The roar of airplanes and rumble of trucks at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport doesn’t bother Rocco as he gets to work. In a cargo-loading area, he leaps onto a conveyor belt carrying luggage bound for destinations around the world. He runs purposefully from one suitcase to the next, sniffing each. He stops dead in his tracks at a small bag, briefly sits, then lunges for his reward—a rubber toy his handler presents to him.

Rocco has found what X-ray machines and human screeners could easily miss: a piece of ivory. The hand-size tip of an elephant’s tusk was hidden inside the bag for a demonstration of the canine’s olfactory prowess.

The three-year-old Belgian Malinois is a member of a new team