Rescuers help to restrain the calf in Yunnan last month. DAI ZHENHUA/FOR CHINA DAILY
Last month, the forestry department of Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture in the southwestern province of Yunnan received a report that an elephant calf had been found with deep cuts to its left front leg.
Despite its injuries, residents said the calf was roaming around Manfeilong village in Pu'er city, a major habitat for Asian elephants in the province.
A team of more than 100 workers from several local government departments was dispatched immediately to assist the calf.
Using drones to monitor the area, the team located its family about 5 kilometers away, but the young animal's injuries meant it was unable to join them.
To avoid any conflict between rescuers and the calf, the operation was conducted at a farm where the land was flat and there were few people. Six rescuers caught the calf and held it gently with ropes while its wounds were treated with anti-inflammatory medication.
Later, it was transported to the Asian Elephant Rescue Center in Xishuangbanna's Wild Asian Elephant Valley, the prefecture's biggest wild animal rescue center, established in 1996.
The center, the only research institute in China that focuses on Asian elephant rescue and breeding, has assisted 24 injured elephants since it was established in 2008.
China's first Asian elephant breeding base was established at the facility a year later.
Two days after the calf arrived at the center and received a second round of anti-inflammatory medication, the animal－named Longlong ("Dragon") by the rescuers－had become accustomed to its new environment and was happily eating grass and drinking goat milk.
Bao Mingwei, an elephant specialist in charge of the treatment, estimated that the calf, which is about 110 centimeters tall and weighs about 180 kilograms, is roughly 2 years old.
The calf has not yet fully recovered, so it is still being treated at the center.
The Asian elephant, which is listed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, is under the highest level of State protection.
Until the 1970s, the species faced a number of threats, including a surge in the human population, a reduction in forested areas and illegal hunting.
However, after determined protection efforts in recent decades, the population has risen from about 170 in the 1970s to around 300.
To protect the elephants and other wildlife, the authorities at Xishuangbanna have expanded the prefecture's nature reserves from 240,000 hectares in the 1980s to the current 414,660 hectares.
