By Yuan Yuan

The past two months have seen some standout moments for one herd of 15 Asian elephants. Without any clue as to why， this herd of nine adults， three juveniles and three calves embarked on a mysterious trek in April， leaving their regular habitat bordering Myanmar in Yunnan Province. After traveling over 500 km northward， they reached the vicinity of Yunnans capital， Kunming.

Its rare for these giant animals to undertake such a journey. The towns along the elephantsroute were caught unprepared， with experts and local officials scrambling to protect both elephants and humans using any means possible. Residents in villages potentially in the elephants path were either moved elsewhere in advance or required to remain on higher floors of buildings. Hundreds of people have been mobilized to ensure the elephants security and a 24-hour command center has been set up to monitor the giants around the clock.

As members of a species under top level protection in China， the elephants were welcomed with green lights at each leg of their journey. They swaggered into villages， broke into houses， turned taps on to drink their fill and were even suspected to have broken into kitchens and got drunk on residents rice wine. At mealtimes， they plundered farmlands， stuffing themselves with corn， bananas or dragon fruits and leaving a mess behind. On June 2， they finally arrived on the outskirts of Kunming.

A mysterious trek

In March 2020， the herd， originally with 16 elephants， was observed leaving its usual habitat inside a national nature reserve in Yunnans Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture and headed for another habitat in the neighboring Puer region. It is usual for Yunnans elephants to move between two habitats， so their movements were barely paid attention to. The herd remained in Puer for over a year， while the birth of a new calf in December 2020 brought their number to 17.

On April 16， the 17 elephants lumbered north into the area of Yuxi， which neighbors Puer but had never been visited by the elephants before， putting the herd in the spotlight. After eight days， two of the elephants returned to Puer and the remaining 15 began their long trek further north.

The reason for this trek and its final destination are still unclear. Experts have put forward several explanations， including that the increasing population of Chinas Asian elephants， from 193 in the 1980s to around 300 currently， has led to crowding， or that the elephants simply got lost.