Wild elephant stray transferred back to reserve

A male wild Asian elephant that strayed from the herd a month ago was successfully transferred back Wednesday afternoon to Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in Southwest China's Yunnan province.

The elephant, together with the other 16 in the herd, left its habitat in Xishuangbanna last year and headed north. Two members of the herd returned to the nature reserve early this year.

After traveling more than 500 kilometers, the male elephant left the herd on June 6 while the other 14 are still roaming in Xinping county, according to the command office in charge of monitoring their migration.

The male elephant stayed alone in the outskirts of the provincial capital and neighboring city Yuxi for 32 days, about 72 km from the herd.

On July 5, it entered Yuxi's Zanbatang community, only 300 meters from the expressway and 200 meters away from the Kunming-Yuxi high speed railway.

"Due to safety concerns and to avoid risks of conflicts, we decided to capture the elephant early Wednesday morning," an announcement by the office read.

As of 3pm, the elephant had been transferred to the nature reserve and its physical condition is good, per the announcement.