No one knows where they are going or why.

Since last March, a family of wild elephants in southwest China has trekked more than 480km, travelling north through fields, highways, villages and towns.

They have stolen crops, rolled around in villagers’ courtyards looking for food, and broken into a car dealership where they drank buckets of water and left muddy footprints.

The herd has been labelled the “Northbound Wild Elephant Eating and Walking Tour”. In one incident two young elephants reportedly raided a villager’s stores of corn liquor and later appeared to pass out in a field.

“We have no way of telling where they are going,” Chen Mingyong, a professor at Yunnan University who studies wild elephants, told state broadcaster CCTV.

“It is common for Asian elephants to migrate, but in the past that has mostly been to look for food within their habitats. An exodus this far north is quite rare.”

From local residents to officials and TikTok influencers, the country has been transfixed by the family of 15 Asian elephants who have ignored police sirens and trucks laden with food, attempts to lure them home to their nature reserve in Xishuangbanna, near China’s border with Laos and Myanmar.

Yesterday the family reached the outskirts of Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan, where authorities fear deadly accidents between residents and the wild animals will become more likely.

Traffic controls were put in place outside a village near the city of Yuxi, where the elephants were expected to pass.

Crowds gathered to watch, farmers grabbed piles of dung to use as fertiliser while bloggers filmed themselves.

Chinese researchers, describing the migration as “unprecedented” in China, said the elephants may be on a quest for food and territory as a result of their shrinking habitat in the nature reserve in Yunnan. The herd has caused about 6.8 million yuan (€900,000) in lost crops.

“Some experts have also discussed whether it is a random choice in itself, which makes sense in my opinion,” Cao Dafan, project lead of Asian Elephant Protection wrote.

“Inexperienced leadership” of the elephant in charge could be another reason, according to Mr Chen.

“Maybe it got it wrong but still thinks it’s going the right way,” he said. (© 2021, The Washington Post)

© Washington Post