China's wandering elephants on the move again

China’s famed wandering elephants are on the move again, heading southwest while a male who broke from the herd is still keeping his distance

BEIJING -- China’s famed wandering elephants are on the move again, heading southwest while a male who broke from the herd is still keeping his distance. The group left a wildlife reserve in the southwest of Yunnan province more than a year ago and has trekked 500 kilometers (300 miles) north to the outskirts of the provincial capital of Kunming. As of Saturday, they were spotted in Shijie township in the city of Yuxi, more than 8 kilometers (5 miles) southwest of the Kunming suburb they had arrived at last week, according to state media reports. The lone male was 16 kilometers (10 miles) away, still on the outskirts of Kunming. The direction of their travel could be a good sign, since authorities are hoping to lead them back to their original home in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture southwest of Kunming.