While sleeping, 3 elephants hold 1 baby elephant in the middle. After waking up, the baby elephant found himself stuck in it and could not move, and he did not succeed in getting up several times... Recently, the "super cute sleeping posture" of the northward migration elephant group photographed by the drone has been screened on the Internet.
This footage was taken by elephant herd monitors from the Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade. In the past few days, the migration of elephants from north to south in Yunnan has aroused widespread concern in society. Behind the avoidance of human-elephant conflict and the harmony of human-elephant is the precise deployment of the local government and the active cooperation and love of the masses.
Among them, according to the arrangements of the provincial command for the safety and security prevention of the Asian elephant population in the south of the yunnan, the forest fire brigade also joined the "elephant chaser" team, carrying various types of equipment such as detection, communication and command, and the movement of the target group was tracked and monitored.
Wild elephants taken on June 7 in Sunset Yi Township, Jinning District, Kunming City (drone photo). Courtesy of Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade
Wild elephants look "cute", but large wild animals also have a fierce side. This means that during the migration of elephants, it is necessary to give early warning in advance, do a good job in mass evacuation, and avoid human and elephant encounters to the greatest extent.
Most of the time, the elephants travel through the woods and are most active at night. On May 27, a herd of elephants moved near Asan County, Yuxi City. As night falls, conventional monitoring methods make it difficult to locate the exact location of wild elephants. To this end, the monitoring team of the Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade launched the UAV thermal imaging mode, combined with the local climate, gradually adjusted the UAV monitoring temperature, and successfully locked the elephant herd after nearly 30 minutes.
Crews operate drones to monitor wild elephant trails on June 5. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Chao
In view of the recent rainy and continuous weather and other situations, the monitoring team responded in a timely manner to ensure that the elephant herd monitoring "did not lose contact". On June 2, the elephant herd moved to Xinzhai Village, Hongta District, Yuxi City, and was forced to stop monitoring due to continuous thunderstorms in the local area. "Early the next morning, we stepped on the dew, started the drone again, and finally found the elephant herd after a five-hour flight and seven batteries." Chen Shengyao, a staff member of the Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade, said.
In the process of monitoring, the staff also explored methods such as air-ground integrated monitoring, which effectively solved the problem of difficult to obtain the location of elephants in complex geographical environments, and provided accurate reference for judging the whereabouts of elephants and early warning.
On May 29, crews assembled drones to monitor the movements of elephant herds. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Chao
In the task of monitoring elephant herds, monitors are sometimes exposed to dangerous situations. Especially for night-time tracking and monitoring, you must be prepared to face the elephant herd.
On May 30, while on a monitoring mission, the drone operator Zhang Xiong suddenly encountered a herd of elephants. "When I was less than 10 meters closest to the elephant herd, I was both surprised and frightened." He and his colleagues quickly pulled over and turned off the lights, slowly retreated to a nearby hometown, "Everyone hold their breath and wait for the elephant to leave before going downstairs!" ”
Wild elephants taken on June 4 in Shuanghe Yi Nationality Township, Jinning District, Kunming City (drone photo). Courtesy of Yunnan Provincial Forest Fire Brigade
In the past few days, although monitoring the elephant herd has been difficult, the staff has also gained a lot of emotions.
Under the unified deployment of the provincial command, the counties, towns, and villages along the line have done a good job of evacuating personnel in advance, and adopted flexible measures such as blocking the road by muck trucks and guiding feeding. Along the way, many people took the initiative to take out corn and other food for the elephants to eat.
"We're worried that there's nothing to eat in the woods here, and the elephants may not be able to eat enough." Tang Zhengfang, a villager in Sorghum Village, Sunset Yi Nationality Township, Jinning District, Kunming City, said that when he heard that the elephants were coming, he took the initiative to contact the township government to donate his own corn to help feed the elephants.
As of 17:30 on June 12, the elephant herd continued to maneuver around a small area in Shijie Township, Yimen County, Yuxi City. The solo elephant was isolated for 7 days, and left Anning City at 17:40 on June 11, moving 6.15 kilometers south, entering Jinning District, 14.3 kilometers away from the elephant herd, and the elephant was safe.
At present, the provincial command headquarters organizes the member units of the on-site command headquarters to work together with relevant departments to jointly study the work of elephant group monitoring and early warning, power safety guarantee, etc., and organizes the expert group to hold a working meeting to scientifically study and judge the migration dynamics of the elephant herd, coordinate and guide the relevant states and cities to formulate work plans, and orderly promote the protection and safety prevention of Asian elephants to ensure the safety of human elephants.
(Reporters: Yan Yong, Zhao Peiran, Hu Chao, Sun Min)
Source: Xinhua News Agency