DAQIAO, CHINA: First the entire village is locked indoors, its power supply is cut off, and finally bananas and other elephant treats are dumped on the opposite side of the city for uninvited guests. Had to be persuaded to pass.
So is the regular welcome ceremony for China’s wayward herd of 14 wild elephants, whose wandering ways have led to an unusual operation aimed at taking them home across steep, windy and often populated terrain.
The group left their home range 16 months ago for a lavish meal tour at a farm rich with corn, sugarcane, bananas and dragon-fruits in the south near the Laos border. Yunnan Province.
The Chinese public has expressed delight at the elephant’s antics, which include parades through city streets, drinking grain wine and gathering dozens in a field.
But three dozen Yunnan forestry firefighters have been charged with getting the elephants safely home – tracking nocturnal animals that can disappear into the dense forest and trekking up to 30 kilometers (18 miles) a day. can do.
This is the farthest north that China’s wild Asian elephants have traveled in record time, said yang jiangyu, a task force leader.
“Before, we only saw elephants in zoos or on television,” he said.
Concerned about the arrival of elephants near the regional capital Kunming in May, officials formed a task force.
They sleep in the subtropical air or in their vehicles, using drones to keep an eye on the animals.
On a recent morning team members stood in front of a large-screen TV in a makeshift village headquarters as front-line colleagues returned the first images of the day.
As the white clouds dissipated, a forest near a village saw the gray-brown outline of a neat elephant, their trunk probing around for a final snack before falling asleep during the heat of the day.
They stir again around dusk, and their trackers follow along with them.
When they reach a village, there are loudspeakers and door-to-door checks urging locals to lock themselves up, preferably upstairs, out of reach of hungry visitors.
Electricity supplies are cut to prevent elephants from being electrocuted or caught in a fire, and vehicles are parked behind the herd or on sideways so that they can move, preferably south.
Once through, their new location is plotted, the exhausted task force is redeployed and the circus resumes the following evening.
Elephants have dazzled their chariots with their intelligence.
A mature female leads, always finding the best path towards food and water or the safest point of a stream, which which Said.
They use tree branches clenched in their trunks to help their mates to scratch hard-to-reach scabies, swat bugs, or to create designs on the ground.
mud Serving as sunscreens, Yang said, they can form a crude “sunhat” from vegetation, and their dexterous trunks can turn on a tap, open a door, or pour water into wells for a drink. can lift it, Yang said.
Officials said three are juveniles, two born during the Odissi. Adult elephants have been observed using their enormous force to crush traffic railings so that the young can climb over them.
China’s state-controlled media cast him as the beloved hero in a national text on conservation.
But elephants, which can weigh up to four tons and run as fast as Usain Bolt, are also extremely dangerous, especially if they feel threatened by their young.
Two of them, who had earlier broken for home, crushed to death a villager in March, said Chen Mingyong, a Yunnan University Elephant-behavior expert attached to the task force. It appears that the death was not reported.
“It needs to be dealt with firmly. The Asian elephant is a wild animal and we have to keep a safe distance,” Chen said.
Media is kept away from animals on safety grounds.
Why the elephants started their trek remains an enigma.
Possible explanations include stiff competition for resources due to the increase of wild elephants in their home territory.
Climate change is also subtly affecting their habitat, Chen said, or fluctuations in Earth’s electromagnetic field could be taking away their fine-grained navigational sense, or they may have simply taken a wrong turn.
Researchers are particularly perplexed as to why skilled sailors made an almost straight line to Kunming before turning south a few months ago.
Chen said that elephants usually circle around in their hunt for food.
“There have been many behaviors for which we didn’t have enough data before.”
They have traveled more than 700 kilometers, Yang said, and although now headed home, there are still several hundred more to go.
And smart foods appear to be slow, unwilling to rush through the cornucopia that ripens around them in the summer sun, Chen said.
But autumn’s cold weather is expected to eventually accelerate their home run, a happy prospect for Yang and his team, who have been joined by gate-crashers.
“As soon as (trackers) see the elephants on our monitors, they feel very happy despite the hard work and hard work,” he said.
So is the regular welcome ceremony for China’s wayward herd of 14 wild elephants, whose wandering ways have led to an unusual operation aimed at taking them home across steep, windy and often populated terrain.
The group left their home range 16 months ago for a lavish meal tour at a farm rich with corn, sugarcane, bananas and dragon-fruits in the south near the Laos border. Yunnan Province.
The Chinese public has expressed delight at the elephant’s antics, which include parades through city streets, drinking grain wine and gathering dozens in a field.
But three dozen Yunnan forestry firefighters have been charged with getting the elephants safely home – tracking nocturnal animals that can disappear into the dense forest and trekking up to 30 kilometers (18 miles) a day. can do.
This is the farthest north that China’s wild Asian elephants have traveled in record time, said yang jiangyu, a task force leader.
“Before, we only saw elephants in zoos or on television,” he said.
Concerned about the arrival of elephants near the regional capital Kunming in May, officials formed a task force.
They sleep in the subtropical air or in their vehicles, using drones to keep an eye on the animals.
On a recent morning team members stood in front of a large-screen TV in a makeshift village headquarters as front-line colleagues returned the first images of the day.
As the white clouds dissipated, a forest near a village saw the gray-brown outline of a neat elephant, their trunk probing around for a final snack before falling asleep during the heat of the day.
They stir again around dusk, and their trackers follow along with them.
When they reach a village, there are loudspeakers and door-to-door checks urging locals to lock themselves up, preferably upstairs, out of reach of hungry visitors.
Electricity supplies are cut to prevent elephants from being electrocuted or caught in a fire, and vehicles are parked behind the herd or on sideways so that they can move, preferably south.
Once through, their new location is plotted, the exhausted task force is redeployed and the circus resumes the following evening.
Elephants have dazzled their chariots with their intelligence.
A mature female leads, always finding the best path towards food and water or the safest point of a stream, which which Said.
They use tree branches clenched in their trunks to help their mates to scratch hard-to-reach scabies, swat bugs, or to create designs on the ground.
mud Serving as sunscreens, Yang said, they can form a crude “sunhat” from vegetation, and their dexterous trunks can turn on a tap, open a door, or pour water into wells for a drink. can lift it, Yang said.
Officials said three are juveniles, two born during the Odissi. Adult elephants have been observed using their enormous force to crush traffic railings so that the young can climb over them.
China’s state-controlled media cast him as the beloved hero in a national text on conservation.
But elephants, which can weigh up to four tons and run as fast as Usain Bolt, are also extremely dangerous, especially if they feel threatened by their young.
Two of them, who had earlier broken for home, crushed to death a villager in March, said Chen Mingyong, a Yunnan University Elephant-behavior expert attached to the task force. It appears that the death was not reported.
“It needs to be dealt with firmly. The Asian elephant is a wild animal and we have to keep a safe distance,” Chen said.
Media is kept away from animals on safety grounds.
Why the elephants started their trek remains an enigma.
Possible explanations include stiff competition for resources due to the increase of wild elephants in their home territory.
Climate change is also subtly affecting their habitat, Chen said, or fluctuations in Earth’s electromagnetic field could be taking away their fine-grained navigational sense, or they may have simply taken a wrong turn.
Researchers are particularly perplexed as to why skilled sailors made an almost straight line to Kunming before turning south a few months ago.
Chen said that elephants usually circle around in their hunt for food.
“There have been many behaviors for which we didn’t have enough data before.”
They have traveled more than 700 kilometers, Yang said, and although now headed home, there are still several hundred more to go.
And smart foods appear to be slow, unwilling to rush through the cornucopia that ripens around them in the summer sun, Chen said.
But autumn’s cold weather is expected to eventually accelerate their home run, a happy prospect for Yang and his team, who have been joined by gate-crashers.
“As soon as (trackers) see the elephants on our monitors, they feel very happy despite the hard work and hard work,” he said.
.