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Habitat loss puts the squeeze on China’s growing wild elephant herd
- Farming and infrastructure have chipped away at the amount of space the animals have to roam
- Fragmented foraging grounds need to be connected to give the giants room to move as numbers increase, conservationists say
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Under a footbridge in southwest China’s Yunnan province, a lone female elephant makes a rare appearance at a clearing on the edge of thick forest, ignoring the heavy rain and the gathering crowds to graze and bathe in the chocolate-coloured water.
Usually, visitors hoping to spot the animals should wait until February or March, when the females were seeking mates, said Qin Ganglin, a protection officer at the Wild Elephant Valley in Yunnan’s Xishuangbanna region, on the border with Laos and Myanmar.
“They don’t come out very often right now, and only sporadically,” he said.
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Human interactions with the typically elusive elephants have come under fresh scrutiny after a herd of 16 Asian elephants left Xishuangbanna last year, with most of them migrating 500km (311 miles) north to the outskirts of Yunnan’s capital, Kunming, turning them into a media sensation.
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Wandering herd of elephants enjoy muddy slide downhill in China’s Yunnan province
Wandering herd of elephants enjoy muddy slide downhill in China’s Yunnan province
How Xishuangbanna protects its elephants and natural ecosystems will also set the tone for China’s overall efforts to change its relationship with nature, especially after the emergence of Covid-19 exposed the health risks that arise from habitat destruction.
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