INTERNATIONAL: China’s Yunnan Province is set to declare a new national park to protect the region’s elephants. Their habitat has been shrinking in recent years owing to human encroachment, but that has had a surprise upside, like the one captured on camera on Monday when a lone female decided to take a bath under a popular footbridge.
Visitors to Yunnan’s Wild Elephant Valley don’t normally get up this close and personal with the valley’s residents. Protection officers say the animals are usually spotted only in February and March, when the females are looking to mate. Wild Elephant Valley is in Yunnan's Xishuangbanna region, on the border with Laos and Myanmar.
Elephants have captured the Chinese imagination in recent months. A herd of 15 recently migrated north from the valley to the outskirts of Yunnan’s capital, Kunming – a 500 kilometre trek that became a social media sensation. The new national park will further protect the elephants, which have enjoyed a rebound in numbers over the past 20 years. Their population is thought to have doubled.
