Video | Ivory Coast resorts to elephant relocation as habitats shrink
Agricultural land has eaten into the elephants' stomping grounds, prompting green groups and officials to pick the risky and laborious solution of moving the animals south
As the spooked elephant starts to run, the vet pulls the trigger. Just a few minutes later the huge beast slumps to the floor unconscious, ready for Ivory Coast's first elephant relocation.
These hunters are not interested in the elephant's ivory. Instead, they want to protect people from the animal -- and vice-versa -- around Daloa, a town in the centre of the country where humans and elephants have recently come into conflict.
This is because the animals' local habitat, the Marahoue national park, has been eaten away bit by bit by agriculture.
They came three days in a row. They spoiled my cocoa plants and my banana plants, and devastated some of my yams
"The forest was devastated and the animals fled the park," said Ibo Nahonain, head of Tapeguhe village just outside Daloa. "Gradually they came here."