After years of incredible adventures, the elephant herd that gained widespread acclaim for their epic journey through southwest China’s Yunnan province has now found comfort in the familiarity of their hometown as they look forward to the growth of their community and a new chapter in their lives.

In March 2020, the “short-nosed family” left a forest reserve in Xishuangbanna and migrated about 500 km north to the provincial capital Kunming, where they finally arrived in June 2021. Since then, they have headed south again and returned safely to the reserve. And this Thursday marks the third anniversary of their return to the reserve.

“Members of the ‘short-nosed family’ have intermarried with members of other families. Currently, four elephants have had their babies,” said Bao Mingwei, head of the innovation studio at the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Center.

According to an expert, wild elephants are highly social animals, and the increase in the number of elephants and elephant families indicates a positive trend in the healthy reproduction of these majestic mammals.

“We constantly observe the splitting and merging of wild elephant families and have found that the entire wild elephant population is very stable and reproduces in an orderly manner,” said Chen Fei, director of the Asian Elephant Research Center of China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

After their return, the “Short Nose Family” was active in the Xishuangbanna Forest Nature Reserve. Currently, the “Short Nose Family” has grown to over 20 members.

Dedicated individuals monitor wild elephants using a variety of techniques, such as aerial surveillance and thermal imaging cameras. They track the herds, provide early warning to nearby villagers, and provide monitoring data for scientific research.

“Compared with other elephant families, the short-nosed elephants are not afraid of people because they have ‘a lot of experience’ and know that people will not harm them. After their return, they were also very friendly to people and never hurt or attacked people,” said Pu Yongbing, a wild elephant observer.

This migratory group of elephants has received a lot of attention during their journey. Local authorities have drawn up contingency plans and implemented flexible guidelines for the elephant family’s migration to ensure the harmonious coexistence of humans and elephants as much as possible. This approach has also been highly praised by the United Nations and the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

“(In 2024), the CITES Secretariat issued an official document explicitly endorsing and praising our current model of elephant conservation and conflict mitigation in China. This model can serve as an example for other countries in the world, so this is a very high evaluation for us,” Chen said.

Three years after the epic migration, China’s ‘wandering elephants’ welcome new members

August is an important time for bird migration, as migratory flocks travel along the East Asian-Australian Flyway, making important stopovers at five sites along the Yellow Sea and Bohai Gulf coast of China that have now been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The decision was made during the 46th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, which took place in New Delhi, India, from July 21 to 31, according to China’s National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

UNESCO noted that the Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Yellow Sea Coast and Bohai Gulf of China (Phase II) represent a gradual extension of the sites already listed. The five newly included sites are part of Phase II, while the Phase I protected areas were inscribed in 2019.

The new sites are spread across the Yellow Sea ecoregion and include areas in northeastern Liaoning, northern Hebei, eastern Shandong, and Shanghai. The northernmost site is at the mouth of the Yalu River in Dandong, Liaoning Province.

The reserve is home to 324 species of birds, including 18 species under first-class national protection and 58 species under second-class protection.

The park covers more than 17,000 hectares, offers a intact ecosystem between tidal wetlands with minimal human intervention and is home to over 500,000 birds during the migration season.

Thanks to rich food resources and vast open spaces, it serves as an important passage and supply station along the migratory bird route in Northeast Asia and is therefore of great international importance.

China’s migratory bird sanctuaries added to UNESCO World Heritage List