Moving a multi-ton elephant is hard enough, imagine relocating 500 of these big creatures. That is exactly what a team at African Parks, a conservative group, is currently doing to save the lives of these endangered animals.

Africa's elephant population is under threat from habitat loss and poaching. A survey has found that their numbers have declined from 10 million to just about 450,000 over the last century. Meanwhile, in Malawi's Liwonde National Park, the oversupply of these animals is causing harm to the ecosystem as it leads to human-wildlife conflict. The large number of elephants within the park is forcing other animals to wander into the surrounding farmland, leaving them vulnerable to attacks from locals.

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Malawi's Department of National Parks believes that the only way to solve the crisis is to launch a massive elephant translocation.  

So in June, the process of the relocation began. The team hovered through the sky inside a helicopter searching for a target group of elephants to relocate. Once identified, the pilot and the assigned veterinarian, Andre Uys [who specializes in rehoming large mammals], shot the elephants with tranquilizers and loaded them onto trucks using a crane, before being hauled 185 miles away to their new home in Nkhotakota.

The team is already used to seeing an elephant hanging upside down from a crane. BBC News reported that they have already moved 250 elephants in the past two months.

Kester Vickery, the founder of Conservation Solutions, the organization tasked to spearhead the project, said that moving elephants through "human-induced migration" was a fairly new concept.

Vickery added that "Culling was one of the few tools available in the past for the management of too many elephants. We set out to prove it's not the only solution."

The team at African Parks believes that translocation is a solution to save the elephant population. Not only do they get a new home where they can thrive, but the crisis facing southern Malawi's ecosystem is also addressed.