Yunnan park rangers struggling to control elephant's highway rampages

Forest rangers and police in southwest China's Yunnan Province are struggling to control a wild elephant that has launched three attacks on parked cars on a major highway in four days.

Its latest rampage along the G213 highway linking Yunnan with northwest China's Gansu Province came on Monday afternoon, when it damaged nine cars, forest police in Xishuangbanna Prefecture told Xinhua.

The elephant, nicknamed Zhusunya (Bamboo Shoot Teeth), had already crushed or damaged almost 20 cars in two strolls on the highway on Friday and Sunday. There have been no human casualties from its sorties, near the nature reserve Yexianggu (Wild Elephant Valley).

After receiving a report from the reserve at 4:40 p.m. on Monday, police officers closed the affected section of the highway, guided traffic and evacuated tourists.

The animal returned to nearby woods at around 11 p.m.

Bamboo Shoot Teeth, a lone male elephant, may have been angry over a lost fight for mate, local elephant protection workers said.

A forest police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the animal may also have been provoked by increased presence of humans in its habitat around the Spring Festival holiday.

Though Xishuangbanna has reserved special passageways for elephants on many roads, they must cross the highway that divides the eastern and western parts of the reserve.

During the Spring Festival, G213 traffic peaked and many tourists illegally parked their cars on the roadside, the officer said.

He suggested enlarging local parking lots and that tourists visit the reserve by bus rather than car.

Staff from the reserve told Xinhua that local authorities have deployed specialists to track the whereabouts of wild elephants, and will warn tourists and villagers once they find any elephants moving to the main road.

Wild Asian elephants are a level one nationally protected species in China, with less than 300 in the country. Endi