There and Back Again Movie Chinese
There and back over again: The ballsy adventures of Red china'due south wandering elephants
By Tessa Wong
BBC News
Prototype source, Getty Images
The elephants take wandered hundreds of kilometres across Yunnan province
For the by 17 months, a wandering herd of elephants in China has embarked on an adventure of mammoth proportions.
Now, after straying hundreds of kilometres from their nature reserve, the animals are on the final leg of their journey dwelling, Chinese officials appear terminal week.
From breaking into villagers' homes to giving birth while on the road, information technology's been an epic journey that could have been straight out of The Lord of the Rings.
This is the story of how the fellowship of elephants journeyed there and back again.
Leaving the shire
Tucked in the bottom end of the southern Yunnan province, the sprawling Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve lies right by the border of Myanmar and Laos.
A lush tropical wood that stretches for nigh 241,000 hectares - most i and a half times the size of London - it is habitation to most of Yunnan's endangered Asian elephants.
Some time in March 2020, a herd of about 14 elephants decided to leave this jungle paradise, heading n.
Nobody batted an eyelid at first. Wild elephants are known to roam freely and regularly in the region, such that one city, Pu'er, even runs "elephant canteens" to feed their big visitors.
Nigh don't stray very far, and usually caput dwelling after a while. But months later on the herd left, officials started to realise that this was no ordinary trip.
This realisation literally hit home before this year when reports emerged of the elephants crashing into people's houses, munching on their crops, and guzzling their h2o.
CCTV footage of the elephants wandering around the streets of various cities also went viral.
The elephants accept been filmed in a number of Chinese cities
Fifty-fifty at present experts remain baffled by their behaviour.
But in a paper due to be published soon in the Conservation Letters journal, a team of Cathay-based experts led past Professor Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz theorise that the elephants left to find more than food due to several reasons.
One is the growing elephant population - and thus greater competition for food. Cheers to conservation efforts by Chinese authorities, the province has seen its elephant population nearly double over the last three decades to about 300.
"Now we need to deal with the consequences of this success, which is a real challenge because the elephants are running out of physical infinite to move without interacting with people, crops, or infrastructure," Prof Campos-Arceiz, a principal investigator at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, told the BBC.
An extreme drought, which lasted for a yr upwards to the elephants' departure, besides led food to be more scarce.
Others have pointed out that over the decades, deforestation and encroaching farmland have reduced elephants' habitats in China outside protected areas.
Government have tried to boost forest protections. But ironically this has also meant less available food for the elephants within nature reserves, with a thicker forest canopy blocking off more than sunlight, resulting in fewer edible plants growing in the understorey, said Prof Campos-Arceiz.
Mammoth task
As the herd headed northwards over the light-green hills and forests of Yunnan, Chinese officials swung into action.
An emergency taskforce was set up, marshalling a cast of thousands to guide the elephants away from villages and cities.
Getty Images
Jumbo Numbers
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150,000 people evacuated from homes
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$1m estimated damage
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973 drone flights
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25,000 staff deployed
Source: Yunnan officials, CGTN. Numbers right as of 8 Aug
Elephants are known for their voracious appetite, and so far they have wolfed down a staggering 180 tonnes of corn, bananas, pineapples and other food laid out for them. Even a sideview mirror was torn off by a curious elephant inspecting a vehicle.
A fleet of drones tracking the elephants captured some iconic moments, such as a mudbath...
...a tussle between ii young elephants...
...and babies who had slipped into a trench.
In April two elephants peeled off and decided to return dwelling house. Another one strayed in June, and officials somewhen tranquilised and transported him home equally they were worried that he would non survive lone. All three were males, which usually travel lonely.
Only the tribe welcomed new members also: at to the lowest degree two elephants gave birth, according to Prof Campos-Arceiz.
Throughout it all, the people of China remained transfixed. The Asian elephants of Yunnan became a household name as their adventures became national news, and villagers lined their route hoping for a glimpse.
Every movement was closely monitored not just by the drones but besides scientists studying their trails and faeces, and fifty-fifty paparazzi livestreamers who ate their leftover pineapples.
The elephants also got their own celebrity rumour - a merits that they "got drunk" after consuming tonnes of corn vino was quickly debunked by experts.
Homeward jump
By early June, the herd had reached the provincial capital of Kunming - more than 500km from home and the furthest whatever Yunnan wild elephant had ever gone.
Some began to worry for their survival as they headed to cooler climes and prolonged their interaction with human culture.
What many saw as endearing behaviour, such every bit roaming in towns equally a shut pack and lying down for a nap, were really signs of stress and exhaustion, experts take told the BBC.
China's trekking elephants terminate for a snooze
Much to officials' relief, the elephants began turning southwards a few weeks later, and presently neared the Yuanjiang river.
Authorities said that within the herd'southward firsthand radius, only one span was suitable for an elephant crossing.
The taskforce sent out thousands of soldiers and workers to lay out food as allurement, set up electrical fences, create artificial paths, and even sprinkle water on roads to ensure they were cool enough for the elephants to step on.
But the animals were less reluctant to follow. What would have been a straightforward 30km journeying turned into a 143km expedition equally they wandered off-piste, according to reports.
Finally, on 8 August, the herd lumbered across the bridge over the Yuanjiang river. Though they were still 200km away from the Xishuangbanna nature reserve, local media heralded the offset of the final leg of their journey.
There is no guarantee that they volition get in all the way dorsum home, nor stay for long even if they practice. Shen Qingzhong, a senior engineer with the nature reserve, told reporters that it was "nigh sure that the elephants volition start moving north again eventually".
Subsequently spending millions of yuan on guiding the elephants dwelling house, authorities promised to establish "a unified protection direction arrangement" and footstep upwards habitat protection and restoration. Plans to create a national park for the Asian elephants have besides been accelerated.
But fifty-fifty if their return is delayed, the elephants have already achieved the incommunicable, embarking on an epic journey that has raised global sensation about the plight of their endangered species.
Tolkien would have been proud.
Boosted reporting by Suranjana Tewari and Yitsing Wang.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-58196663
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