Animal Detective

Chapter 544: Chapter 447: The Live Elephant Smuggling Case

Police officers remained at the scene, and reinforcements from the Hudian Police Station had also arrived.

A SWAT officer was flying a drone, monitoring the mother elephant’s movements.

Pan Wenhai drove, proceeding slowly along the road.

In the passenger seat, Shen Xin was looking at a tablet.

He had sent Er Long out to follow the mother elephant.

While the car was stopped, Pan Wenhai took out his phone to check something again. After a moment, he slapped his thigh and said, "I knew I remembered it right."

"Remembered what right?"

Shen Xin asked, turning his head.

Pan Wenhai showed his phone to Shen Xin and said, "Weren’t we just talking about how this elephant could have been transported here?"

"It made me think of a similar case that happened before. I had a vague memory of it. Look, this is it—the first case of its kind in the country."

He pointed at his phone.

It was a very old news report from online.

Apparently, back in ’05, the Dehong Police had received a tip from the public that someone was planning to smuggle a batch of Asian elephants across the border to sell in the country.

The case was handled by Dehong’s local forestry police.

After a meticulous investigation and deployment, they apprehended the group of criminals.

The report stated that the group had purchased six elephants from Mianguang for 30,000 to 50,000 yuan each.

After crossing the border, the elephants were kept in an uninhabited forest near the border, waiting for the deal to be finalized before being transported to Ludong Province.

The buyer was a zoo in Ludong Province, a privately-owned local enterprise.

The selling price for each elephant was as high as 600,000 yuan.

The report included some operational details: they split into two teams, one to catch the buyers during the transaction and the other to rush to the crating site.

They were caught red-handed with the goods.

The report also mentioned that they had actually purchased six elephants, but one was beaten to death because it was too wild.

Reading this, Shen Xin asked, "How did they smuggle them across the border?"

’05 was thirteen years ago, but border control should have still been very strict.

"I’ll have to ask. Back in ’05, I was just a rookie. I only heard about this case, but I don’t know the specific details."

Pan Wenhai took his phone back and called an acquaintance in the forestry police.

This case was the largest live elephant smuggling case not just in the country, but in all of Asia. After it was solved, many media outlets reported on it, and it had a huge impact.

But Pan Wenhai hadn’t been involved, so he wasn’t clear on the details.

After listening to the explanation from the other end, Pan Wenhai’s expression turned grim. He hung up after a while and couldn’t help but curse.

Seeing Shen Xin look at him, Pan Wenhai said in a low voice, "I got the details. They used drugs."

Shen Xin was startled and quickly asked what happened.

Pan Wenhai said, "They targeted an elephant herd. Then, they smeared drugs on bananas and fed them to the herd’s matriarch."

"They fed her for two consecutive weeks, getting the matriarch addicted. After that, they just tossed bananas as they walked, luring her to follow them."

"Once the matriarch moved, the other elephants followed. That’s how they led them all the way from Mianguang into the country."

"After that, it was conventional transport. They welded cages and used trucks."

After explaining the situation, Pan Wenhai cursed again, saying those guys were absolute monsters.

Shen Xin was equally shocked.

’Could it be that this mother elephant was captured the same way?’

’If the mother goes, the calf will naturally follow.’

Shen Xin gazed toward the distant mountain forest.

’It can’t be, right? Although this mother elephant is skinny from hunger, she seems to be in relatively good condition.’

Shen Xin was more inclined to believe she had been poached within the country, captured in the mountains, and then secretly transported here through some channel.

Even with today’s widespread surveillance, loopholes still exist.

With a heavy heart, Shen Xin searched online for related reports again.

Fortunately, the addicted elephant, named Xi Guang, did not die.

After the five elephants were rescued, they were handed over to the national wildlife protection association and then fostered at a rescue station in Qiong Province.

In Qiong Province, a team of experts managed to help the addicted elephant overcome its addiction, a process that took nearly three years.

In ’08, four of the elephants were transferred to the Asian Elephant Rescue and Breeding Center in Mengle. To this day, those four elephants are still living there healthily.

Just as they were speaking, Tan Qingming and his group arrived.

The director of the rescue center was a slender man with a square face and glasses. He was well-mannered and spoke very kindly.

He didn’t say anything about Shen Xin’s team having cut the chains off ahead of time.

"Anesthetizing carries certain risks, after all, and we couldn’t have operated anyway."

"Besides, you may not know this, but elephants hold grudges. After being anesthetized, it’s possible for them to resent humans, which could lead to them deliberately causing destruction or attacking people in the future."

"Doing it like this—cutting the chains without anesthesia and then containing its range of movement—is actually a pretty good approach."

When anesthesia is used, it’s typically done remotely to prevent the elephant from seeing it happen.

As he spoke, Tan Qingming directed his subordinates to approach and observe the mother elephant’s condition, while he himself stayed with Shen Xin’s group, observing via the drone.

He had already contacted the people in Mengle, and they were on their way.

From a distance, the mother elephant’s calls could still be heard.

Tan Qingming sighed softly. As someone involved in animal research, rescue, and conservation, he couldn’t bear to see a mother and child separated like this.

Shen Xin asked what would happen to the mother elephant next.

Would she be released directly back into the wild, or taken in for rescue and care?

And what about the calf?

"It’s hard to say."

Tan Qingming shook his head slightly. "To this day, there is still no standardized protocol for how to handle elephants that wander into urban areas."

"In the past, we only thought about rescuing them, and we had to figure out how to do it through trial and error."

He gave a few examples.

"For example, in ’05, we rescued a baby elephant and named her Ranran."

"At the time, we thought she wouldn’t survive. We didn’t know how to save her and even considered euthanasia."

"But in the end, we managed to muddle through and save her."

"There are many similar cases."

"In 2015, we rescued a calf that was only about a week old, named Yang Niu."

"But while we saved her, reintroducing her to the wild became another huge problem. Take Yang Niu, for instance. She grew up in the rescue center."

"When they encounter a herd in the wild, these rescued calves will bolt away even faster than a person would."

"Herds are social animals and rarely accept outsiders. So if we release them alone, they won’t have the protection of a herd and will struggle to survive in the wild."

"And our ultimate goal in rescue work is to return them to the wild, not just to keep them in captivity."

"That’s why it’s still a debate."

"When should we anesthetize and rescue, and when should we leave them be and try to guide them back to their herd?"

"By the way, did you see the news from the month before last?"

He looked at the group.

Shen Xin shook his head, not knowing what news he was referring to.

Tan Qingming said, "On April 8th, in Simao, an elephant wandered into the city and roamed everywhere."

"It was a huge hit online. They even nicknamed it ’City-Strolling Bro.’"

"At the time, the plan was to avoid anesthetizing it and just guide it out of the city to prevent contact with people."

"But what happened? After we finally managed to guide it out, it ran right back in on its own and even went to a school."

"We had no choice. We had to anesthetize it then and send it to the rescue center."

"That was the first Asian elephant in the country to enter a bustling urban area. Because of that incident, I heard they finally decided to seriously discuss what to do and establish a standard protocol for the future."

"After all, cities are developing too quickly and encroaching too much on wild elephant habitats."

Just as he was speaking, a situation developed in the distance.

Perhaps because people had gotten too close, or because she still couldn’t find her calf, the mother elephant shifted her attention to the humans. Bellowing, she charged at a rescue center employee.

The person fled in a panic.

The scene erupted into chaos. Tan Qingming quickly grabbed his walkie-talkie and ordered everyone to pull back.

Fortunately, the mother elephant only gave a short chase and didn’t pursue them relentlessly.

Elephants may look clumsy, but they are actually quite fast when they charge.

Over a short distance, their sprint is faster than a human 100-meter champion.

After the brief chase, the mother elephant stopped. The next moment, she ran straight toward the road.

The person now in charge of monitoring the scene was Guo Zhao Yue, the chief of the Hudian Police Station.

He was in his forties but looked a bit older for his age. Seeing the mother elephant running their way, he quickly shouted for everyone to disperse.

No one dared to hesitate and immediately scattered.

Without getting in the car, Shen Xin followed Pan Wenhai, running east along the road.

But as they ran, the mother elephant, about a hundred meters away, immediately changed direction and headed east as well.

She was fast, and the distance between them shrank.

It was proof that two legs really can’t outrun four.

After the Hudian Police Station officers had arrived, they had set up a cordon further down the road to direct traffic.

Seeing the police cordon ahead with cars stopped by it, Shen Xin didn’t dare run any further and immediately turned around with Pan Wenhai.

The moment he turned, however, the mother elephant instantly adjusted her direction as well.

Seeing this, a thought struck Shen Xin, and he immediately stopped.

’She’s coming for me, isn’t she?’

When Pan Wenhai saw Shen Xin stop, he was terrified and quickly tried to pull him along.

"Old Pan, it’s okay. She’s coming for me."

In the time it took to speak, the mother elephant had drawn near. She had already slowed down and was letting out another mournful cry.

Just like that, she came to a stop in front of Shen Xin, called out twice, and then slowly, heavily, knelt on the road.

And in the very next moment, a goodwill icon slowly materialized above her head.

After appearing, it instantly shot up by six bars.

It was the same thing that had happened with Yuexiao.

When a self-aware being developed a sense of goodwill, the meter would show a leaping increase.

She extended her trunk, touched Shen Xin gently, and called out urgently, still pleading for his help.

Tan Qingming had run west.

He turned his head just in time to witness the mother elephant kneeling, and his eyes instantly went wide.

He had never seen anything like it.

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