The INCREDIBLE JUMBO RETURN JOURNEY!
Herd the one about the elephant family who baffled experts by going on a 300-mile rampage across China? Now they’ve suddenly packed their trunks for the long road home
NO ONE knows quite why they set off in the first place. But after a 17-month jumbo journey that captured the imagination of people across the world – and continues to baffle experts – a 14strong group of Chinese elephants is on its way home.
What possessed this adventure-seeking herd to turn around, having trekked 300 miles north, and finally head back towards their protected habitat in southwest China’s Yunnan province?
Perhaps they have realised that the grass – and bushes, tree bark, plants, roots and fruit – isn’t always greener on the other side. Or have finally got something out of their rebellious systems.
At any rate, they may miss the excitement. Along the way, they have plodded along motorways and through city centres and housing estates. They have rummaged in wheelie bins, drunk alcohol, bashed down garage doors and helped themselves to a private supply of water after managing to turn on the tap. All in all they have caused more than €1million of damage, resulting in insurance claims of almost €950,000 – and 150,000 people have had to be temporarily evacuated from their homes along the migration route.
The trunk-swaying convoy set off on March 15 last year from their reserve in Xishuangbanna, in China’s mountainous southwest near the borders with Laos and Burma, and headed north, followed discreetly by a determined convoy of 400 police officers and members of the emergency services, a fleet of vehicles, a small armada of drones and a lot of head-scratching boffins.
One expert, Yang Yingyong, a member of a committee set up to ensure the elephants came to no harm, said yesterday that their return was ‘scientifically planned’, but did not make it clear whether the planning was on the part of the committee or the highly intelligent jumbos. ‘We will strive to allow them to return to their habitat as soon as possible,’ Mr Yang added.
MAYBE the animals are using some sort of internal compass, as migrating birds do. Or maybe their route is being skilfully directed by the Chinese authorities.
Whatever the explanation, elephants have mapped pathways based around sources of