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China’s famous herd of wandering elephants may be ready to go home
- The 14 Asian elephants are still 200km from their reserve, but in a ‘suitable habitat’ and making significant progress
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A herd of wandering elephants that fascinated locals and people around the world by making a months-long journey into urbanised southwest China, raiding farms and even a retirement home for food, appears finally to be headed home.
Local authorities in Yunnan province have deployed trucks, workers and drones to monitor the elephants, evacuated roads for them to pass safely and used food to steer them away from populated areas. Even though the herd entered villages and the outskirts of the provincial capital of Kunming, no humans or other animals were injured.
The 14 Asian elephants of various sizes and ages were guided across the Yuanjiang river in Yunnan on Sunday night and a path is being opened for them to return to the nature reserve where they lived in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture.
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The elephants left the reserve months ago for unknown reasons and roamed more than 500km north. After reaching the outskirts of Kunming, a centre for business and tourism, they turned south again, but still are far from the reserve.
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One male that separated from the herd was subsequently tranquillised and returned to the reserve.
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