Last year, a group of elephants made a decision: go north! After months of travelling, they made it 500 kilometers away1their home in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan.
It's not common to see Asian elephants travel such2long way. Scientists are not sure why3this. Some believe it's because they were looking for better food. According to Zhao Huaidong from the International Fund for Animal Welfare, the number of Asian elephants4now because of human protection efforts. So their old homes might not have enough food for5. At the same time, elephants are quite6in the vegetables and fruit that people grow.
Another possibility, according to Chen, is that they have lost their way. Some7also believe that they were traveling because of migratory instinct (迁徙本能). Recent solar (太阳的) activity has changed earth's magnetic field (磁场). This might make the elephants think that they should migrate.
During their long journey, the 15 elephants have already damaged (破坏) 561,333 square meters of farmland,8we need to protect them. For the safety of both humans and the elephants, people fed them tons of food9them away from towns and cities. Seventy-six police cars and trucks10to keep an eye on the elephants.
Luckily, on August 8th, Xinhua News said that the elephants have come back to the living place where they used to live.
