The exclusive "canteen" for thousands of acres of elephants in Yunnan has opened and elephants have come to forage

The exclusive "canteen" for Yunnan thousand mu elephants opened

　　Xinhua News Agency, Kunming, September 7th (Reporter Zhuang Beining) A reporter learned from the Forestry and Grass Bureau of Jinghong City, Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province on the 7th that the construction of a 1,000-mu elephant exclusive "canteen" in the Jinghong area has begun. "Business", elephants have entered the food source base for food.

　　Zha Wei, a member of the Party Group of the Jinghong City Forestry and Grass Bureau and deputy director of the Jinghong County Nature Reserve Management and Protection Bureau, told reporters that the 1,000-mu food source supply area is distributed in Dadugang Township, Jingne Township, and Mengwang Township in Jinghong City. .

　　According to reports, the construction of the Asian Elephant Food Source Base in Jinghong City was started in December 2020 and completed in May 2021. The total investment is 1 million yuan to transform and establish an Asian elephant food source supply area of ​​1,000 acres. Among them, 340 acres of zongye reeds and 330 acres of plantains were planted. The project passed inspection and acceptance in late August and was subsequently put into use.

　　"If the elephants eat and drink enough at the food source, it will reduce the number of people seeking food and stealing crops." Zha Wei said that five nitrate ponds were built near the food source and salt was poured into them. Meet the physiological needs of Asian elephants for salt.

　　According to Zha Wei, when looking for the project area, according to the activity trajectory of the Asian elephant, the implementation was carried out on the state-owned forest land that is the only way for the Asian elephant and has an open area.

　　In recent years, with the continuous increase in wildlife protection, the number of wild Asian elephants in Jinghong City’s jurisdiction has increased from about 80 at the end of the last century to about 185 at present. The distribution and activity area in Jinghong City has reached 3,500 square meters. Kilometers, some areas show a state where Asian elephants overlap with the living space of local people.

　　According to reports, by building a food source base for Asian elephants, it is possible to attract Asian elephants to activities in food supply areas without having to enter the living and production areas of the local people because they are looking for food, thus alleviating human-elephant conflicts.

　　At present, Asian elephant-loving plants such as zongye reed and plantain planted in the food supply area are growing well, with a survival rate of 96%.

　　Asian elephants are the largest and most representative terrestrial vertebrates in Asia. They belong to the first-level national key protected wild animals. They are mainly distributed in the three prefectures of Xishuangbanna, Pu'er and Lincang in Yunnan Province, with a population of about 300.