Asian elephants, an endangered species, are expected to receive better protection through the creation of a new research centre, expansion of a breeding and rescue centre and creation of another in Yunnan province.
The Asian elephant research centre will be in Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, the main habitat of wild elephants in the province, local authorities said. It will be supervised by the provincial forestry department.
The centre will encourage cross-border studies and research, including the ecology where elephants live, their behaviour, genetics and relationship with local society. Officials say that will provide guidance to help save the species from extinction and ease tension between elephants and residents.
In Yunnan, which has the only habitat of wild Asian elephants in China, the elephant population has increased from 170 in the 1970s to 300 now thanks to protection efforts, the Yunnan Provincial Forestry and Grassland Department said.
But the elephants’ need for food and habitat has also expanded rapidly, leading to conflicts with residents.
About 85 per cent of the 153,000 confrontations between humans and wild animals in the prefecture between 1991 and 2010 involved wild Asian elephants, resulting in the deaths of 33 people and 165 injuries, officials said.
Drought and hot weather reduced food and water supplies early this year, causing some elephants to intrude on human communities, officials said.
“Wild elephants and humans should co-exist in harmony, which requires the government to draft new protection plans with sustainable development for the long term,” said Ren Zhizhong, director of the provincial forestry department.
An Asian elephant breeding and rescue centre in Xishuangbanna is being expanded, Ren said, and another centre will be established in Pu’er to help boost the species’ population and encourage the return of captive-bred elephants to the wild.
The Xishuangbanna centre, built in 2009, is finding it difficult to feed a large number of elephants in a limited area, said Chen Mingyong, a life sciences professor at Yunnan University who has been studying the animals for decades.
Chen said the centre cares for about 60 elephants rescued in the wild or bred in captivity. But it has less than 1.16 square miles of space. “Living in a limited area for a long time will do harm to them, both physically and psychologically,” he said.
Wild Asian elephants can roam up to 25 miles a day, making an ideal area for them between 7.7 and 11.6 square miles.
There also are plans to use scientific surveillance methods such as drones to identify areas used by each group of wild elephants.
This article was originally produced and published by China Daily. View the original article at chinadaily.com.cn
