Additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
ADVERTISEMENT
ing platform now has more than
200,000 users and more than
41,200 followers on the social
media app WeChat.
Li Chao, 47, of Manzhuang vil-
lage, Mengla, said: “With this app
it’s easy to track the movements
of the elephants daily. In this way
human and elephant conflicts
can basically be avoided.”
A herd of wild elephants roam-
ing through Yunnan has recently
been making headlines world-
wide. The herd traveled about
310 miles from its forest home in
Xishuangbanna before reaching
Kunming, the provincial capital,
on June 2. It was still roaming in
the city of Yuxi as of June 24.
For more than a month, au-
thorities sent police to escort the
herd, cleared roads to facilitate
their passage, and used food
to distract them from entering
densely populated areas.
Wang Qiaoyan, a senior engi-
neer with the scientific research
institute at Xishuangbanna Na-
tional Nature Reserve, said there
is no evidence that the elephants’
habitat has been destroyed.
“Fragmentation is a factor
that causes wild elephants to
frequently enter villages for food.
Nature reserves are scattered in
different counties and cities and
not connected with each other.”
Wang, who has researchedAsian elephants for 23 years,
said recent studies have shown
that their numbers are rising in
Xishuangbanna, thanks to the
effective management of nature
reserves, increased public aware-
ness and a lack of poaching. The
total number of Asian elephants
has risen from about 170 in the
1980s to about 300 now.
Elephants are intelligent and
have good memories. If they
reach a location and are unable
to pass through it, or there is no
good feeding on the way, they
may choose to return to their for-
est home in Xishuangbanna.
“This process may take a long
time, and in the absence of hu-
man intervention the herd may
continue to search until it finds a
suitable habitat,” Wang said.
Li Zhongyuan, head of the Xish-
uangbanna Wildlife Conservation
Station, said the prefecture has
done a lot to protect wild animals
and plants. It has adopted local
laws and regulations to protect
them and strictly enforces state
and provincial laws.
“Local residents have greatly
raised their awareness of wildlife
protection over the years,” Li
Zhongyuan said.
In August, 2015, Yangniu, one of
the most popular elephants in the
area, was found by villagers after
being abandoned by its mother.
Before being rescued by veteri-
narians, the animal was treated
and fed by residents.
Yang Hua, deputy director of the
flora and fauna department at the
Yunnan forestry and grassland bu-
reau, said wild elephants have ven-
tured farther afield as conservation
efforts have been stepped up.
In the 1990s the elephants
were located in three counties
and 14 towns, but by the end of
last year they had been reported
in 12 counties and 55 townships,
he said.
In 2003 the Xishuangbanna
Asian Elephant Breeding and Res-
cue Center was established, and
Yunnan set up a technical rescue
team for elephants in the wild.
Xishuangbanna National Na-
ture Reserve has collaboration
agreements with three provinces
in northern Laos, forming five
joint protection areas covering a
total of nearly 51 square miles to
ensure the safety of cross-border
elephant habitats.Xiong Chaoyong is a father
not only to his 10-year-old
daughter, but also to an
18-year-old Asian elephant
called Ranran.
Xiong, 39, has been working
as an elephant caretaker at the
Asian Elephant Breeding and
Rescue Center in Xishuang-
banna, Yunnan province, for 13
years. He and other 25 people
working at the center are known
as daxiang baba, elephant dads,
because of their years of dedica-
tion to rescuing and looking
after wild Asian elephants that
have been abandoned by their
herds or injured.
The center, the only re-
search institute in China that
specializes in rescuing and
breeding Asian elephants, has
saved 24 elephants since it
opened in 2008.
Every day starting at 8 a.m.,
these guardians check the
elephants’ urine and feces and
measure their body tempera-
ture before guiding the animals
into the forests for wilderness
survival training.
In 2005 Xiong joined a
rescue team of 80 and went to
Xishuangbanna, where he met
Ranran for the first time.
Ranran’s left hind foot had a
wound that was about 8 inch-
es wide and had festered badly
due to infection. She was also
so skinny that her ribs were
protruding, and she struggled
violently when people tried to
approach her.
The rescue team calmed
her down with anesthesia.However, for a long time Ranran
refused to cooperate with the
treatment, and her condition
failed to improve.
Following the advice of tradi-
tional Chinese medicine prac-
titioners, Xiong began using Yun-
nan Baiyao, a local TCM formula
for healing wounds, and pu’er
tea, which is believed to have
an anti-inflammatory effect.
After almost six months Ranran
finally began to improve.
In the following months,
Xiong accompanied Ranran all
the time, feeding her, talking
with her and singing to her.
He even moved his bed to a
makeshift shed and watched
over her at night.
Over the years Xiong has
treated Ranran as his own child.
Their connection built up to a
point where Ranran followed
Xiong wherever he went. On a
rainy day in 2010 Xiong and
Ranran walked side by side on
a mountain. Xiong acciden-
tally slipped, and just as he was
about to fall, Ranran extended
her trunk to steady him.
After Ranran had fully recov-
ered Xiong began to train her
survival skills by taking her into
the rainforest during the day, re-
leasing her, and then finding her
and bringing her home at night.
The ultimate goal is to return
the elephants to the wild.
“The rescue work of Asian ele-
phants still has a long way to go,”
Xiong said. “We are constantly
learning. We don’t know what it
will be like in the end, but we will
do whatever we can to help.”Itinerant elephant bathesin shower of fatherly loveBY ZHANG YANGFEI and LI YINGQINGXiong Chaoyong checks the teeth of an elephant in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan
province, on June 12. WANG JING / CHINA DAILY