Escaped elephants cause million-dollar losses as they invade Chinese capital

Chinese authorities are attempting to turn back a marauding herd of 15 elephants, which arrived on the outskirts of Yunnan Province’s capital Wednesday after traveling for hundreds of miles up from the South.

“It is very rare for them to travel such a distance to the North,” Chen Mingyong, an Asian elephant expert with Yunnan University, told Xinhua News of the incredible journey, which he claims is the longest ever recorded in China. The wayward group, which includes three calves, originally resided in a nature reserve near Pu’er. However, the endangered animals embarked on a 300-mile migration along highways and through crop fields over the past months, reportedly incurring $1.1 million in economic losses.