Wildlife: Travelling elephants in China finally heading home

The herd of elephants that have attracted worldwide attention for their trip across China are finally almost home.

The elephants travelled up to 700 kilometres (435 miles) through the Yunnan province in China, reaching the outskirts of Kunming, a major city, and then turning back.

The herd of 14 elephants were seen crossing the Yuanjiang river on Sunday night, and all are said to be in good health and now heading to their original nature reserve.

On Sunday it was reported that the herd were 200 kilometres (124 miles) from home.

Their original nature reserve is in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, in the south of China, and the elephants have been on their travels for 17 months.

Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture is in the south-west of China, close to the border of Myanmar. The elephants left the nature reserve last year and began an unexpected trek further north of China.

Chinese authorities who have been following the elephant's journey don't know why the herd decided to travel so far, or travel at all.

The heard of elephants travelled through several counties such as Mojiang and Eshan, popping up in different villages, towns and cities. Thankfully, Once they reached the outskirts of Kunming, they changed direction and started their journey back home.

The elephants began their journey in Xishuangbanna and travelled all the way to Kunming, in the Yunnan province, China

Chinese authorities have been following the elephants and trying to help guide them back home. They set up food baits and roadblocks to direct them to suitable habitats where they would be safe.

Authorities also used 18 drones to distract the elephants from busy areas where they could cause harm to themselves or others.

Even though the elephants did raid a few farms and shops for food, no injuries were caused to any animals or humans throughout the past 17 months. They were even spotted taking a bath in a canal!

The elephants were exhausted and needed to rest - researchers noted that elephants don't usually sleep like this, which leads them to believe they were very tired from their travelling

Scientists are confused why the elephants decided to travel so far, even when a couple members of the herd about to give birth.

Speaking with the BBC, Joshua Plotnik, assistant professor of elephant psychology at the City University of New York, believes that one reason for the elephant's journey could be because of human-related disturbances in their habitat.

Joshua said: "It is almost certainly related to the need for resources - food, water and shelter."

In China, Asian elephants are the most protected animal species and thanks to their conservation efforts, wild elephants in the Yunnan province has risen from 193 in the 1990s to 300 today.

The rise in numbers is impressive because their natural habitats have reduced from human related activity, such as deforestation.