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Fifteen elephants are making a mysterious, year-plus march through China – CNET


wandering elephants in china
It’s not unusual for elephants to ramble outside their habitats, but this wandering herd stands out. Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, a principal investigator at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, who specializes in elephants, told The New York Times he has “no idea” why these elephants won’t settle in one spot.
Hu Chao/Xinhua via Getty Images

CNET Science
The elephants started off last March, leaving a nature reserve in Xishuangbanna, and have traveled more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) so far. There were 16 in the group then, but some have turned around, and others have given birth, making the group now down to 15, the Times reports.

But not everyone is laughing. The elephants have caused 412 separate incidents of damage costing about .1 million (£779,894, AU.4 million)  in losses, state news agency Xinhua reported, as cited by CNN. Although no casualties have been reported, the animals are being closely monitored as they keep on trunking.
Monitoring images show the herd includes six female adult elephants, three male adults, three sub-adults and three cubs.
Chinese social media users seem entertained by the herd. When residents in a town on the elephants’ path prepared corn stalks for the animals to munch, the hashtag “northbound wild elephants’ buffet site” trending on social-media platform Weibo. 

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