A herd of wild Asian elephants live in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve all year round. In order to protect and rescue Asian elephants, the staff of Xishuangbanna Asian Elephant Rescue and Breeding Center have made many efforts over the years, they spend more than 10 hours a day with the rescued Asian elephants and take meticulous care of the Asian elephants.

The rescued Asian elephant "Ranran" is taking her baby-elephant "Jingjing" shuttling through the rainforest for food, accompanied by the staff.

Xishuangbanna Asian Elephant Rescue and Breeding Center is set up to protect endangered species and to rescue Asian elephants as well as their breeding research. 

Staffs in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve are namely called “Elephant Dads”, Chen Jiming is one of them. During the more than 10 hours of interaction and care every day, they cleaned the feces and bathed the Asian elephants, and conducted wild training for the rescued Asian elephants, those who were trapped by icon clips, injured by accident and fights, abandoned by the herb, etc. It was “Elephant Dads” who healed their wounds with care and warmth.  

“‘Ranran’ was an Asian elephant rescued 10 years ago.” Chen Jiming said. She was dying with severe injure when she was found on July 7, 2005. Then, with the help of the rescue team, she was safely escorted to the Rescue Center. During her time of recovery, she got her name - “Ranran”.

“Ranran” was badly injuried and festered due to infection. For a long time Ranran refused to cooperate with the treatment, so her condition did not improve. Accompanied by “Elephant Dad” and treated with traditional Chinese medicine and Western medicine, after nearly half a year of efforts, Ranran finally began to improve and established a deep relationship with “Elephant Dad” as well.

In the following months, "Ranran" was accompanied by "Elephant Dad" every day to carry out adaptive survival training in the wild. With time passing by, she gave birth to her first child - “Jingjing”, a female elephant, on September 21, 2019.

Chen Jiming introduced that since its establishment, the Xishuangbanna Asian Elephant Rescue and Breeding Center has participated in the rescue of wild Asian elephants for more than 20 times. According to records, they had rescued those Asian elephants who were badly injured in wild, abandoned by their parents, and had abnormal behavior and healthy hazards.

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(Editors: Evan, Rachel)