keywords: pilanesberg elephants van africa aarde
text: Uncertain fate for S. Africa's giants PILANESBERG NATIONAL PARK, South Africa -- Ecologist Rudi van Aarde leaned back on a veranda that overlooked dry grasslands and a group of bull elephants, his shoes still dusty from an 8,000-mile tour of game reserves in southern Africa. Van Aarde was on a mission: saving elephants from sanctioned killings.