My Week with African Parks and Prince Harry

The dreamy view from my room at the Mount Soche Sunbird hotel in Blantyre. Malawi's second city was named for the Scottish birthplace of missionary and explorer David Livingstone (of "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" fame). Tomorrow, we head out to Liwonde National Park,where we'll be participating for six days in the translocation of 500 elephants organized by the nonprofit NGO called African Parks. 

The entire matriarchal family is now unconscious from the drugs, and a crane truck has pulled up, upon which all the animals will be hoisted one by one for the next phase of the translocation. The average family size is 8 to 13, and all family members need to be moved together—their social bonds are very evolved. 

Lifting the elephants onto the crane truck looks terrible, but it's painless, safe, and the animals are absolutely unaware. They are positioned carefully on their sides (the safest, healthiest position) atop the flatbed truck. 

Kester Vickery (of Conservation Solutions), in charge of ground operations, and Prince Harry, check on the sedated elephants. The animals are carefully and repeatedly monitored throughout  the entire process—their breathing, their oxygen levels, their positions. The trunks always need to be extended.

The prone elephants are about to be pulled on a conveyor belt from the crane truck into the huge, square wake-up box—a.k.a., the Frog. Once inside, they'll be given a so-called reversal drug, which will quickly awaken them. Once back up on their feet, they'll walk on their own accord (weirdly, always backwards) into the transport truck, visible through the doors on the other end of the Frog, which will then take them to their final destination, the Nkhotakota Wilderness Reserve, 300 miles away. 

The man in the olive green jumpsuits facing us is Peter Fearnhead, CEO of African Parks, the conservation organization behind this massive, human-engineered elephant migration. 

The matriarch of the family (note her tracking collar) starting to come to in the wake-up box—her eyes are open. The noise of an elephant getting to its immense feet in the wake-up box, slamming the metal floor and sides, is an unforgettable thing.

Prince Harry and Kester Vickery talk shop momentarily in the wake-up box after the one load of elephants have awoken, moved into the transport truck, and departed under armed escort for their new home. 

How sweet is this? This female is still asleep in the wake-up box. I can't get enough of elephant feet. Their undersides are clean, smooth, and wonderful to the touch. 

Before the elephants are fully awake, Vickery administers tranquilizers that will keep them calm and happy during their long journey to Nkhotakota Wildlife Reserve, where they will be released. Each elephant gets doses of three different drugs.

The ears are divine—a little rubbery, very veined, like giant leaves. We all have to make sure the ears more or less cover the sleeping elephants' eyes—for protection.

We all take a boat ride along the Shire River as the sun sets—a needed antidote to the adrenaline-fueled excitement of the day. (Yes, beers are provided.) That bird, perhaps a malachite kingfisher, is about to dive for his dinner.

The crew is used to this, of course, but I'm thrilled to be riding one morning in the helicopter that will be searching for (and darting) the elephants. "Klara, look for something big and grey," the dart-gun-wielding veterinarian, Andre Uys, tells me helpfully from the back seat. 

We're darting bulls today, and we've just flushed this one out of the cover of some low trees (no, I didn't spot him himself). Bulls are typically solitary, living apart from the matriarchal family; sometimes, the young ones form for a time a sort of band of brothers.

We're almost close enough now for darting to begin. Uys, in the back seat, is getting his dart gun ready. 

There is something of the thrill of the hunt in this for sure—except that it's benign. As soon as the bull is down, the ground crew arrives and the checking of vital signs begins. Measurements are also taken of the elephant's shoulder height, length of tusks, and diameter of footpad—all useful for later research. 

Another bull has been darted but is fighting the effects of the opiate drug, refusing to go down. The ground crew, including Prince Harry, starts moving in on him. Time in these operations is of the essence. The faster it all happens, the less stress there is on the animals.