LIWONDE NATIONAL PARK, Malawi—Half a dozen African elephants lay strewn on a riverside plain in Malawi, immobilized by darts fired from a helicopter in a massive project to move 500 elephants, by truck and crane, to a sanctuary for the threatened species.
As development squeezes Africa’s wildlife areas, this kind of man-made animal migration is increasingly seen as a conservation strategy in Malawi, one of the continent’s most densely populated countries, and beyond.
Conservationists flipped the prostrate elephants’ large ears over their eyes to block out light, and propped open the tips of their trunks with twigs to ensure unimpeded breathing. Then the multi-ton elephants, hanging upside down from ankle straps, were loaded by crane onto trucks for a road trip of about 185 miles (300 kilometers) to a safer, more spacious area.
African elephants are in particular peril from human encroachment, while poachers have slaughtered them in the tens of thousands to meet demand for ivory, mostly in Asia.
