Underage elephant strays into downtown Simao, Pu'er

In the evening of April 7, an underage wild Asian elephant strayed into the downtown of southwest Yunnan’s Simao District, Pu'er City. After more than 5 hours, it finally found its way back to the forest under the “escort” of an unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV) which was used to monitor its real-time whereabouts by local policemen.  

"Look, a wild Asian elephant strays into a downtown road in Simao District of southwest Yunnan’s Puer City!" On April 7, this message went viral on the WeChat moments.

Images and videos posted on the WeChat moments by local citizens show this medium-sized Asian elephant was walking through a road in the downtown Simao. Fortunately, although it fearlessly dominated the motorway, no cars hit it and nobody got hurt.

To ensure the safety of the straying elephant and local citizens, the forest policemen used an unmanned aerial vehicle to monitor the elephant’s whereabouts in real time, and they estimated that it was an underage elephant which left the forest and strayed into the city, but it was unable to find its way back. On April 8, the straying elephant finally returned to forest under the “escort” of the unmanned aerial vehicle. 

According to local forestry authority, there are about 96 wild Asian elephants living in the Simao District. With 70% of its land covered by forest, Puer is welcomed by Asian elephants and other wild animals.

Editor: Wang Shixue