This film shows the tight family bonds that elephant have. Notice how the herd sticks together, clustered around the matriarch. There are adult females, sub-adults as well as calves. Elephant family structures are very important so families are always kept together. A calf would always be placed in a truck with its mother, for instance, otherwise she would be extremely worried and agitated throughout the move.
You can see one of the vehicles racing towards the scene to drop off the ground crew. Once an elephant is darted, it takes a couple of minutes for the tranquiliser to take effect, so the team doesn’t have long to take up their positions. Once the drugs kick in, they need to be by the elephants as they fall.
