Scientists say they are still baffled by the herd of elephants making an unprecedented 310-mile trek across China.
The year-long journey has taken the endangered animals from Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve near the border with Myanmar to towns and cities far north of their original protected habitat.
On the way, they have been raiding shops, smashing doors, stealing food, heading into people's homes and even taking a group nap in a widely-shared photo taken earlier this month, which scientists now believe shows how exhausted they are.
Scientists say they are still baffled by the herd of elephants making an unprecedented 310-mile trek across China, pictured sleeping together in Yunnan province earlier this month
Roads have been blocked using lorries while 18 tons of pineapples and corn have been scattered in an attempt to lead the elephants to safety
The elephants are starting to head south again and were last spotted in the town of Shijie near Yuxi.
Joshua Plotnik, assistant professor of elephant psychology at Hunter College at the City University of New York, told the BBC: 'The truth is, no-one knows. It is almost certainly related to the need for resources - food, water, shelter - and this would make sense given the fact that, in most locations where Asian elephants live in the wild, there is an increase in human disturbances leading to habitat fragmentation, loss and resource reduction.'
The trunk-swaying convoy got under way on March 15 last year, when the Asian elephants left their reserve in Xishuangbanna, deep in China's mountainous south west, and headed in the direction of Pu'er City, a tea-producing centre with a population twice the size of Birmingham's.
It is images like these that have captivated China in recent months as a herd of elephants continues an unprecedented jumbo journey across the south west of the country
Since beginning their epic journey, the elephants have wandered the streets, broke into barns and munched their way through farmland, causing an estimated 6.8 million yuan ($1.1 million) worth of damagea
By December last year, they had reached Mojiang County. As they continued heading north, at some point they gained access to fermented grain causing them to get drunk before they headed on to Yuxi City in Yunnan.
They raided the city, rummaging through bins, smashing doors, turning on water taps and causing more than £1million worth of damage.
Some experts believe the mammoth journey could also be to do with the social dynamics of the herd.
Elephants are matriarchal animals and usually follow the oldest and wisest female.
The elephants are left to roam through the neighbourood near the Shuanghe Township, Jinning District of Kunming city in southwestern China's Yunnan Province on June 4
Emergency officers monitor the marauding elephants using a drone as they continue their trek across China
But after puberty, males break off and travel alone or with other elephants of the same sex, only meeting up with females to meet before leaving again.
Chen Mingyong, a professor at Yunnan University, has suggested the matriarch of the
