Elephant family sleep in Jiangcheng

A video of three Asian elephant mothers and seven calves sleeping in Jiangcheng county, SW Yunnan’s Pu'er has gone viral these days. In the video, 6 elephants were sleeping on their sides, with 3 babies surrounded in the middle. The other 3 adults were standing by, as if they were guarding the family members. Zoologists say the 3 baby elephants in the middle were about 8 months old, while the other 4 young elephants were around 1-3 years old.

Mainly distributed in the tropical forest of south Yunnan’s Xishuangbanna, Pu'er and Lincang, the Asian elephant was under the first-class state protection in China. By the end of 2021, the population of wild Asian elephants in Yunnan was about 360, an increase of more than 60 from 293 in 2018.

Source: Jiangcheng Media Center; Trans-editing by Mo Yingyi