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JUDY WOODRUFF: It's not a sight you
see every day, a herd of elephants,

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leaving their home turf, making their way
through Southwestern China, most recently

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stopping in a city of millions. But
that is what's happening right now.

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William Brangham looks
at their mysterious trek,

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and why they might have hit
the road in the first place.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: It's been an
epic and highly unusual journey
so far, more than 300 miles over

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the last year, across deserts,
through forests, crossing busy
city streets, navigating ditches.

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This herd of 15 Asian elephants is
captivating China. Every step of

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their trek documented on state-run
media, and seemingly everywhere
on Chinese social media.

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The world can't seem to get
enough of this trip, a trip to --
well, nobody quite knows where.

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They stop for naps, though the adults seem
more tuckered out than their offspring.

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They eat corn in the fields, even
try to break into power plants.

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But why are they on this
journey? I asked conservation
biologist Peter Leimgruber that

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very question at the Smithsonian's
National Zoo in Washington, D.C.

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PETER LEIMGRUBER, Smithsonian's
National Zoo: We don't have a
clear answer, but I think that

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we have some guesses or ideas.

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Usually, these elephants

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move when they are being disturbed by
people, or when they lose their habitat,

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or when they're trying to find
food. So they might move out of
the forest into the agriculture and

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find some food there. But they
usually don't move distances
that are as long as this.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Is that
right? So, this - - the length
of their journey is unusual?

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PETER LEIMGRUBER: That's the most
unusual piece. So, it's very common

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for them to move into agriculture,
but it's very unusual for elephants

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to move in a straight line distance
for hundreds of miles or kilometers.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Leimgruber has
studied Asian elephants for decades,

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and took us in for a closer look.

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So, the differences between
an Asian elephant and

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the larger elephants people will see
in Africa, what are the differences?

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PETER LEIMGRUBER: Oh, there
are lots, so, first of all,
the size. So these are between

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three and five tons, and an
African elephant would be
between five and seven tons,

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so it's quite a bit bigger.
The head is shaped differently.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Still seems pretty big.

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(LAUGHTER)
PETER LEIMGRUBER: Yes, it's very big, yes.

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(LAUGHTER)
PETER LEIMGRUBER: Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: These elephants
are endangered. There are only
around 30,000 to 50,000 left, down

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from 100,000 at the beginning of
the 20th century, and a lot of
that is because of human expansion.

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PETER LEIMGRUBER: We can show
with our research that this
expansion of human activity is

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further and further restricting the
movements of individual animals,

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as well as entire populations of animals.

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And there's a limit, right?
So, if you keep restricting
their movement, eventually,

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these populations, they just
have to decline. There's just
not enough space for them to

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move enough and find enough food and
do all the things they need to do.

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WILLIAM BRANGHAM: For the
wandering herd in China,

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authorities are working carefully to
keep both people and elephants safe.

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They're trying to guide this group away
from cities, and back to a safer home.

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For the "PBS NewsHour" in Washington,
D.C., I'm William Brangham.

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JUDY WOODRUFF: And we
just hope they stay safe.

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Thank you, William.