ELEPHANT ODYSSEY
Chinese herd's 500-kilometre trek wreaks havoc and captivates country
On 15 March 2020 a group of 16 Asian elephants set out from their nature reserve in the mountainous Xishiangbanna region in China’s southwest, near the border with Burma and Laos, heading northwards in the direction of Pu’er City, a major urban area. While it is not unusual for elephants to range far and wide in search of food and water, this group’s trek has taken them further than most. By December, they were still heading north, reaching Mojiang County, where they discovered some fermented grain that resulted in two elephants getting so drunk they dropped out of the trek; but by then their numbers had been swelled by a baby born on the way.
The remaining 15 headed on into the heart of Yuxi City in Yunnan, where they roamed the streets, turned over bins, ate plants in parks and even paused to drink from a tap in someone’s yard that they manage to turn on. It was also reported that a retirement home resident had to hide under his bed while trunks reached in through his window to probe for food. By then, the herd was estimated to have caused more than £1million worth of damage, including eating 60 hectares of crops, squashing chickens, and forcing thousands of people to temporarily flee their homes. They then headed straight for Kunming, population 6.6 million, resulting in a team of 400 people being deployed to put out 18 tons of corn, pineapples and other food to distract the elephants. In early June 2021 they were north of Kunming, where a drone took a photo of
They roamed the streets, turned over bins and ate plants in parks
the elephants sleeping on their sides nestled up to each other, and this brought the herd to international attention. By this time, they had migrated over 500km (310 miles). However, here the relentless northward advance that had earned them the official title of “Northbound Wild
Elephant Herd” faltered and the beasts turned south again, being spotted in Shijie township, back near Yuxi, southwest of Kunming. By then, one of the males had broken away from the herd and set out on his own, prompting authorities to round him up and return him to the original nature reserve; they are also hoping that this change of direction will enable the rest of the elephants to be led back home as well, but their journey is still the longest ever recorded for any Asian elephant herd.
As elephants are a protected species in China, considerable effort has been put into ensuring the herd’s safety. A team of eight conservation officers has been monitoring them fulltime; and, as the herd travelled, they have been followed by hundreds of police officers, 60 emergency vehicles and a drone swarm, diverting the herd where possible to try to avoid clashes with humans. As to why the elephants embarked on such an epic journey, scientists are divided. Some attribute it to a lack of food in their original home, while others suggest that it is the result of having an inexperienced leader who lacks the ability to turn the group round; it has even been suggested that the Earth’s magnetic field might be responsible. The journey has made the elephants massive stars on TV and social media and and countless videos of them have been posted on Douyin, the Chinese TikTok, and other platforms, striking a chord with China’s slacker millennials following the “lying flat” philosophy. “I don’t want to work,” one posted, “I just want to watch all the 15 elephants content”. BBC News, 3 June; New York Times, 8+29 June; Guardian, 8 June; Times, 9 June; D.Mail, 10 Jun; npr.org, 12 June 2012.