The reporter learned from the Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade that after the elephants safely passed the Yuanjiang Bridge at 20:08 last night (8th) and arrived at the south bank of the Yuanjiang River, from 20:00 last night to 9:00 today (August 9), 14 elephants were in the monitoring range, and the human elephants were safe. The elephant herd has moved 5.7 km (1.8 km in a straight line) to the southwest, and is currently active in the woodland of the Qiaotou Community of Honghe Street, Yuanjiang County, Yuxi City, with a straight-line distance of 25 km from the jurisdiction of Mojiang County, Pu'er City, and the nearest 15 meters from the Kunmo Expressway.
Since May 27, the Wild Asian Elephant Search and Monitoring Team of the Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade has been on emergency duty at the site headquarters for 75 days, and the drone has flown a total of 2,854 sorties, 1,152 hours, and 2,916 kilometers.
Yuanjiang is located in the south-central part of Yunnan Province, with outstanding three-dimensional climatic characteristics, with mountains and dams in the territory, the highest altitude is 2580 meters, and the lowest altitude is 327 meters. Therefore, the Yuanjiang River is a huge "natural graben" of the Asian elephant herd "South Hui".
At 20:08 last night, the 14-headed northward movement of Asian elephants crossed the Yuanjiang River safely through the Yuanjiang Bridge of the Old 213 National Highway in Yuanjiang County, Yuxi City, and the Wild Asian Elephant Search and Monitoring Team of the Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade completely recorded this important moment. According to the on-site monitoring situation, the next step, the destination of the elephant is Mojiang County in Pu'er City, entering the habitat suitable for the elephant.
Before that, after entering Eshan County, Yuxi City, the elephants traveled all the way and turned back, passing through Yuxi, Kunming, Honghe, and back to Yuxi Yuanjiang County. In more than 70 days of travel, the smallest baby elephant in the elephant herd has always attracted everyone's attention and love, what changes have the baby elephants today? What are some interesting stories about growing up? Together, we looked back at the growth of baby elephants through the pictures taken by the wild Asian elephant monitoring team members of the Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade.
In the elephant herd, there are two baby elephants born less than a year ago who are particularly cute, and their eating, living, traveling and playing are all loved by domestic and foreign audiences, netizens and enthusiastic fans.
Shen Qingzhong, Senior Engineer, Member of the Expert Group of the Forward Command:
And when it is born, it has a high intelligence, equivalent to a child of more than one year old, usually like our artificial breeding, we observe the fastest five minutes to get up, two hours or so can walk, you can move. So the little elephant we still look very strong.
At the beginning of June, the wild Asian elephant monitoring detachment of the Yunnan Forest Fire Brigade photographed many pictures of elephant fathers and elephant mothers carefully caring for baby elephants, such as baby elephants sleeping soundly and warmly guarding and repelling mosquitoes and flies, elephant mothers using their noses to help when climbing difficulties, sometimes elephant babies falling over the gutters to help elephant mothers, little elephants bright "stunt" fancy tricks to block elephant mothers from taking lunch breaks, more interesting is that the monitoring detachment also filmed the precious pictures of elephant mothers feeding elephant babies, and elephant babies who love to grab pictures do not forget to greet their little friends with their noses while feeding milk.
Member of the forward expert group Professor Chen Mingyong of Yunnan University:
It is their body language, expressing a more intimate emotion, that is, through these forms, the connection between individuals is strengthened.
In mid-to-late July, the scenes of two baby elephants eating, drinking, playing, having fun and even fighting also entered everyone's field of vision through our drone lens: sometimes they followed the elephant father and elephant mother to line up to bathe, sometimes they followed the elephant father and elephant mother to learn sugar cane and corn, and sometimes the elephant baby also chose to sell cute and playful in the "sand nest". Seeing that the elephants were going to look for food, the playful baby elephants did not want to leave for a long time.
Tong Lei, leader of the D team of the Wild Asian Elephant Monitoring Detachment of the Yunnan Forest Fire Brigade:
The two baby elephants are very cute and very playful, protected by the elephant herd, playing in the "sand nest", crawling with rolling belts, and coating the sand to transform into "little red elephants".
Up to now, the baby elephant has traveled with the elephant for more than 70 days, crossing 23 townships in 5 counties in 3 prefectures and cities, and traveling hundreds of kilometers over mountains and mountains. As they gain weight, so do the baby elephants who grow up. In the past few days, our monitoring team members have repeatedly taken pictures of elephant babies eating on their own, and the amount of food has increased more than before. Sometimes two baby elephant wrestling games are extremely exciting: rolling, wrestling, head-to-head, sumo wrestling, the two sides of the competition in order to gain the upper hand, legs, nose, back at the same time, elephant baby growth in the "force" and "wisdom" began to compete with each other.
Huang Nanxiang, member of the Wild Asian Elephant Monitoring Detachment of the Yunnan Forest Fire Brigade:
Watching the baby elephant grow day by day, there is an inexplicable sense of pride in the heart, and I will feel very happy, following the baby elephant all the way forward and witnessing their growth together, which is a kind of luck and an unforgettable experience.
(Reporters Song Jianchun, Jiang Shulin, Li Hui, Zhu Shu, Liu Cheng, Hao Yijie, Yunnan Tai, Zhuhui, Zhen Kang, Fanbing, Long Jun)
Source: CCTV News Client