REMEMBER the world was awe-struck and fascinated after reports of a herd of wild elephants ‘moved out’ of home and wandered for more than a year across built-up China, went viral?
But when least expected it, Chinese elephant specialist, Dr Becky Shu Chen was in Sabah to speak about it on May 27 in a session dubbed “Promoting connectivity through non-linear infrastructures” at the 2nd Asia Parks Congress held in the Sabah International Convention Centre May 24-29. What happened?
The 15-strong herd literally abandoned its wild habitat in its Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve (241,000ha) southwest China in March 2020 and started tromping northwards across villages, crashing into houses, munching crops and, entered cities in Yunan eventually reaching the outskirts of Kunming, a 8.5-million strong Yunan provincial capital city, before turning around to head home.
The whole epic journey lasted 17 months