It's not a sight you see every day, a herd of elephants, leaving their home turf, making their way through Southwestern China, most recently stopping in a city of millions.But that is what's happening right now. William Brangham looks at their mysterious trek, and why they might have hit the road in the first place.It's been an epic and highly unusual journey so far, more than 300 miles over the last year, across deserts, through forests, crossing busy city streets, navigating ditches.This herd of 15 Asian elephants is captivating China. Every step of their trek documented on state-run media, and seemingly everywhere on Chinese social media.The world can't seem to get enough of this trip, a trip to -- well, nobody quite knows where.They stop for naps, though the adults seem more tuckered out than their offspring.They eat corn in the fields, even try to break into power plants. But why are they on this journey?I asked conservation biologist Peter Leimgruber that very question at the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington, D.C.We don't have a clear answer, but I think that we have some guesses or ideas.Usually, these elephants move when they are being disturbed by people, or when they lose their habitat, or when they're trying to find food.
这不是每天都能看到的景象，一群大象离开了它们的家园，穿过中国西南部，最近在一个数百万人口的城市停留。这就是现在发生的事情。威廉・布兰姆将探访它们的神秘旅程，以及这段旅程被开启的原因。目前为止这是一段史诗般非同寻常的旅程，去年一年它们迁徙了300英里，穿过沙漠，穿过森林，穿过繁忙的城市街道，穿过沟渠。这群15头亚洲象正吸引着中国，它们的每一步行程都被官方媒体记录了下来，散播在中国各大社交媒体上。这个世界似乎对这次旅行了解得还不够，一次去……嗯，没有人确切知道是去哪里的旅行。它们会停下来小睡一会儿，成年象似乎比它们的后代更疲惫。它们吃地里的玉米，甚至试图闯入发电厂。但他们为什么要踏上这段旅程呢？我在华盛顿特区的史密森尼国家动物园向保护生物学家彼得・雷姆格鲁伯提出了这一问题。我们没有一个明确的答案，但我们有一些猜测和想法。通常情况下这些大象会在受到人类打扰、失去栖息地或寻找食物时迁徙。
暂无注释
