Elephant herd lingers in major Chinese city

A herd of wild Asian elephants has made a temporary stop along its migration in the outskirts of the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming, authorities said yesterday.

Of the 15 elephants, one male has broken free from the herd and is currently about 4 kilometers to the northeast of the group, according to the on-site command tracking the elephants.

Continuous rainstorms are complicating efforts to monitor the elephants in Kunming's Xiyang Township.

Authorities have fed the elephants 2 tons of food and have evacuated local residents.

The elephants traveled approximately 500 kilometers from their forest home in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture before reaching Kunming, the provincial capital of Yunnan, on Wednesday night.

According to the latest census, Kunming has a population of 8.46 million.