China's wild elephants seek room to roam as habitats shrink

A wild female elephant grazes under a footbridge at the Wild Elephant Valley in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. - Reuters

XISHUANGBANNA, China, (Reuters): 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 are 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.