Wild Asian elephants enjoy Spring Festival at Yunnan's Wild Elephant Valley

Wild Asian elephants are celebrating their own Spring Festival at the Wild Elephant Valley.

Spring Festival is not only the most significant holiday in China, it also is the peak time for wild elephants to converge on the valley from Pu'er City and Xishuangbanna in Yunnan Province.

"The wild elephants like to come to our valley every Spring Festival because the food is abundant and no one disturbs them. Therefore, the number of wild elephants during Spring Festival is higher than normal. We saw 44 elephants on Friday," said Yan Hanlu, head of the observation team of Asian elephants in the valley.

The wild elephants in the valley consist of five herds, all of which include elephant calves. The largest group consists of 17 elephants, and the smallest is a single male elephant.

These wild elephants hang around in the valley, bathing and playing with each other in the river.

"Unlike tigers, the wild elephant will not fight for territory. Once they've had enough to eat and drink, they'll split into groups and walk away. They like to switch places and have interactions with each other," said Yan.

Asian elephants are listed as endangered by the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and are under first-class state protection in China.

During the dry season from February to April, when there is less food and water in the mountains, wild elephants head to the valley for food. About 40 to 50 will show up in a day.

Local forestry and other departments have reminded the surrounding residents to help in the protection of wild elephants and to avoid human-elephant conflicts.

(Cover image shows two wild Asian elephants via VCG.)

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