Monitoring images show the herd includes six female adult elephants, three male adults, three sub-adults and three cubs.
Hu Chao/Xinhua via Getty Images
Not all who wander are lost, J.R.R. Tolkien once wrote. A herd of wild Asian elephants in China might agree with that sentiment. The 15 elephants have been slowly making their way across China for over a year, delighting social media, eating and trampling crops, and causing more than a million dollars worth of damage.
It’s not unusual for elephants to ramble outside their habitats, but this wandering herd stands out. Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, a principal investigator at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, who specializes in elephants, told The New York Times he has “no idea” why these elephants won’t settle in one spot.
The elephants started off last March, leaving a nature reserve in Xishuangbanna, and have traveled more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) so far. There were 16 in the group then, but some have turned around, and others have given birth, making the group now down to 15, the Times reports.
Social media users, in China and elsewhere, seem entertained by the herd. When residents in a town on the elephants’ path prepared corn stalks for the animals to munch, the hashtag “northbound wild elephants’ buffet site” trending on social media platform Weibo.
“They’d like to speak with the manager,” wrote one Twitter user.
They’d like to speak with the manager.
— Corn in Stool (@beed_ck) June 3, 2021
‘It’s not clear why they left their homes’.
Gonna stop you there lad, its humans. Its always humans
— Steven Kelly (@kane_richards) June 3, 2021
Follow those damn elephants. Something is about to go down!
— Liberal Nerd (@LiberalNerd1) June 3, 2021
Go hefalumps go.
— Trevor M Scott (@TrevorMScott2) June 3, 2021
But not everyone is laughing. The elephants have caused 412 separate incidents of damage costing about $1.1 million (£779,894, AU$1.4 million) in losses, state news agency Xinhua reported, as cited by CNN. Although no casualties have been reported, the animals are being closely monitored as they keep on trunking.