The elephant herd known for its epic journey across southwest China’s Yunnan Province has welcomed four newborns in the past three years, a sign of a healthy and thriving wild Asian elephant population, local authorities said Monday.
In March 2020, this herd of elephants, also known as China’s “wandering elephants,” left a forest nature reserve in Yunnan’s Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and traveled about 500 km north to the provincial capital Kunming, where they arrived in June 2021. The herd then returned south and finally returned to their original habitat in the Mengyang area of ​​Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve on December 9, 2021.
Since their return to their homeland, the elephants have been in good health and their population continues to grow. The calves are gradually developing and learning survival skills, such as foraging and sand bathing, from their family members, said Wang Bin, director of the Xishuangbanna Asian Elephant Protection and Management Center.
Currently, this wild elephant family has split into two groups. One group of 13 elephants still roams around Mengyang area, while the other group of seven elephants coexists with 28 wild elephants from another family in Dadugang Township, Jinghong City.
“Taking the wandering family as a representative, the frequent births of newborns and the division and merger of herds fully demonstrate that there is frequent communication between local elephant groups, and they reproduce healthily,” said Chen Fei, director of the Asian Elephant Research Center under the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.
Asian elephants, a key species in the rainforest ecosystem, are under top national protection in China. These elephants are mainly found in Yunnan.
