In this photo taken June 4, 2021, a migrating herd of elephants graze near Shuanghe township, Jinning district of Kunming city in southwestern China's Yunnan Province. Photo: Yunnan Forest Fire Brigade via AP
Chinese social media has been dominated by a group of animals for weeks. But instead of your usual puppies and kittens, this time it’s all about a herd of wild elephants from Yunnan province that has been roaming the country for months.
Nobody knows what prompted the animals to leave their natural habitat in the subtropical forests of their nature reserve in Xishuangbanna, close to the south-western border with Laos and Myanmar.
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Wild elephants' long march, China
In this photo taken June 4, 2021, a migrating herd of elephants graze near Shuanghe township, Jinning district of Kunming city in southwestern China's Yunnan Province. Photo: Yunnan Forest Fire Brigade via AP
Already famous at home, China's wandering elephants are now becoming international stars. Major global media, including satellite news stations, news papers and wire services are chronicling the herd's more-than year-long, 500 kilometer (300 mile) trek from their home in a wildlife reserve in mountainous southwest Yunnan province to the outskirts of the provincial capital of Kunming.
An aerial view shows wild Asian elephants grazing on a farm at a village in Jinning district of Kunming, Yunnan province, China, on June 6, 2021. A herd of 15 wild elephants has trekked hundreds of kilometres after leaving their forest habitat in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, according to local media. Picture taken June 6, 2021 with a drone. Photo: China Daily via Reuters
In this aerial file photo taken May 28, 2021, and released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a herd of wild Asian elephants walks in E'shan county in southwestern China's Yunnan province. A herd of 15 wild elephants that walked 500km (300 miles) from a nature reserve in China's mountain southwest were approaching the major city of Kunming on June 2, as authorities rushed to try to keep them out of populated areas. Photo: Xinhua via AP/Hu Chao
This image released by China Central Television (CCTV) on June 7, 2021, shows elephants, part of a herd which had wandered 500km north from their natural habitat, resting in a forest near Kunming, in China's southwest Yunnan province. Photo: CCTV/AFP
