The continuous dry weather has driven a group of wild Asian elephants to cropland for food near a village in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Yunnan Province. About seventeen elephants were seen freely foraging tender stems and leaves of crops on Friday.

The Asian elephant is an endangered species on the IUCN Red List and is under China's first class state protection. China has about 250-300 Asian elephants and most of them are distributed in the southern Yunnan. They usually live in a matriarchal society, and the members of the group are mainly female and young elephants. Adult male elephants only join the group during mating season.

The giant animal has a big appetite; an adult elephant needs to consume about 150 kilograms of plants per day. From 1991-2004, the wild Asian elephants in Xishuangbanna caused a total loss of about 44,530 tons of crops. Due to the consequences of climate change and habitat loss, the conflict between elephants and humans has never stopped.

As local people's awareness of animal protection improves, the relationship between animal and human is now getting better. They are searching for a new way of harmony and coexistence. According to a local, this group of elephants usually stay in the rainforests to rest in day time, while at night, they are more active and occasionally search for food on the farmland.

(Cover image via VCG, video credits to CGTN Nature's filming crew)

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