Friendship or conflict? China wild elephants herd move close to humans with No sign to back home yet

in early june of this year 15 wild asian elephants arrived in kunming the capital city of yunnan province in southwestern china and continued to migrate northward with no sign of stopping anywhere to rest they are an endangered herd from the shishwang banan national nature reserve in china's unnamed province near the borders of myanmar and laos in march 2020 this herd of wild elephants left their homes and made their way north traveling more than 500 kilometers over the course of a year such a massive migration has stunned scientists around the world this is the longest known migration or wandering of elephants in china elephants are a family-oriented species family is their best support to rely on during their journey elephants are a matriarchal clan with the oldest and wisest female elephant leading the grandmother mother aunts and children the herd started with 16 or 17 elephants including three males but a month later two of the males left the pack earlier this month another one also left the group on the road in case of thunderstorms they often gather together to keep warm after more than a year the chinese official media took notice of them which became a global sensation in may of this year the chinese communist party's propaganda apparatus took aerial photos of the herd sleeping on the ground portraying a warm and caring chinese government this publicity campaign has succeeded in making the herd of one [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] because lying down puts a lot of pressure on their hearts and lungs in addition if there is any threat elephants of this size need a long time to get up olivier believes that the fact that they are lying down shows that they are exhausted and completely out of strength asian elephants are giant and their bodies are slow to dissipate heat although the skin is thick the epidermis is very thin and they are afraid of exposure to the sun and mosquito bites therefore bathing is a must for their daily life in addition to using rainwater and bathing in the river wild elephants have developed sand baths mud baths and grass baths sand helps to repel mosquitoes and insects obviously elephants cannot suck up a nose of sand as they do water when elephants sand bathe they will roll up their trunks with the help of their front feet cupping a handful of sand towards the top of their heads backs and bellies it often stirs up a dusty mist asian elephants enjoy the sand bath they often shake dozens of times so that the back is full of sand before they stop grass bathing like sand bathing is an acquired skill that is passed down from generation to generation between mother and child in this arduous migration journey when they are tired they lie down to rest when they want to bathe they go to the river to splash and play when they are hungry they take food from the cornfields of local villagers the baby elephants are under the careful protection of the family elders like naughty children as the elephant herd continues to migrate north they will get closer and closer to densely populated areas olivier explains that the primary way elephants communicate is through infrasound the sound of vibration felt through their feet but in cities and towns the elephants hear the sound of vehicles because of the large size of the herd the mixing of human and elephant populations has gradually increased the risk of conflict between humans and elephants triggering concerns that this group of elephants could attack people how powerful is an attack by an elephant elephants move in herds and are at the top of their food chain although there will be lions who dare to challenge them generally lions only attack the older or lone elephant when they move around in herds no species dares to challenge them elephants are thick-skinned if a herd of elephants attacks a human being the individual is unable to resist and can be killed instantly controlling elephant herds from hurting people is a big project every year in china there are reports of wild elephant human conflicts resulting in human fatalities however with global attention the chinese government has been putting in a tremendous amount of manpower since may to demonstrate its ability to do its job for example on june 14 when the elephant heard marched to areas in kunming the local government invested a total of 96 emergency responders and police officers as well as a considerable amount of equipment that day over 1 000 households and 3 420 people had to be evacuated and 1.5 tons of food were prepared for the wild elephants when these elephants show up it's often when villagers are working in the fields under the hot sun they have to stop farming and evacuate to their homes many of the villagers crops like sugarcane fields have been badly damaged the chinese government has promised to compensate the farmers for their losses according to chinese law wildlife resources are owned by the state and the damage caused to them is compensated by the state in 2014 the yunnan provincial government also purchased liability insurance for the public in the event of wildlife accidents however according to records the compensation that the public can receive is in fact much lower than the actual loss in other words if a wild animal cripples a farmer's family even if the main working person is injured by the wild animal and is unable to work for the rest of their life the maximum compensation will only be about u.s 30 000 in total the chinese media said that the chinese authorities intend to take advantage of favorable conditions such as rainfall and falling temperatures to guide the elephant's migration through food lures and road closures to ensure that they return to their original habitat the original habitat of this herd of wild elephants is in shishwang bana yunan province research shows that the wild elephant population in china has been increasing in recent years many natural tropical rainforests in xixon bana have been converted to rubber and tea plantations producing the world's renowned poor tea as a result the biodiversity in shishwang bana has been weakened and the habitat of asian elephants has been reduced local experts say that rubber is now the main source of economic income for the people in xi xuang bana and in order to have more economic income they have to clear all other species researchers at fudan university in china believe that not only has the tropical rainforest been replaced by rubber forests but the areas originally favored by asian elephants such as grasslands valleys and other low altitude ravines have become local economic priority areas doubling down on asian elephants this may be the reason why this herd of elephants has left the reserve as they move further and further away from home more experts believe that the hope for this herd of wild elephants returning home is getting increasingly slim in this unknown journey where is the elephant's final resting place no one knows yet but may they have the best of luck you