Nature conservationist Mickey Reilly stands atop a container holding a baby elephant about to be placed in the cargo hold of the largest aircraft to ever fly out of Swaziland. Eleven elephants were recently flown in two Russian-made Aleutian planes to Florida and California on the first direct Swaziland to US flights, at a transport cost of $250 000 per animal. Game rangers and a team of South African veterinarians accompanied them. The elephants were saved from culling at the eleventh hour when the sale to two US zoos was approved by King Mswati.
