Asian elephants in China face extinction_科技Science

asian elephants are loved in all the countries for being good helper to humans where they can be found. however, their valuable tusks make them fall the victim of poachers, too. chinanews, beijing, september 15 – chinese zoologists have found from a recent probe that fewer than 150 wild asian elephants currently live in china, all of which are distributed in xishuangbannan, lingcang and simao in yunnan province. their ivories make them major targets of poachers, and they will surely die out in the next few years, if poaching remains uncontrolled.

 

being the biggest terrestrial animal extant, asian elephants are tamer than they appear. they are loved in all the countries for being good helper to humans where they can be found.

 

they are usually called "living cranes", helping people in heavy work like opening up wastelands, building roads, transportation, lumbering, etc. an elephant can usually do the work of 20 to 30 people.

 

one might not know that elephants are very good swimmers. they can keep swimming for 5 to 6 hours at the speed of 2 to 3 km per hour. no river can stop them.

 

there is even a school for elephants in xishuangbanna, training elephants to do a wide range of tricks on stage, which has attracted many tourists since it was founded in 1996. nearly all the circus elephants in china are the graduates of that school.