The Yunnan Provincial Wildlife Department said that on Wednesday, the 1.8-ton animal was sedated and taken to the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve.
It did not specify how he was transported back to the protected area of approximately 530 kilometers.
After being released from the reserve, CCTV broadcasted the footage of him searching for food among lush green leaves and then swimming in the river.
When male elephants reach sexual maturity, they usually leave their mother’s herd to live alone or with other male elephants.
Scientists are still confused about what prompted the elephants to leave their homes in the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, which borders Laos.
But their mammoth trek helped highlight the habitat loss and conservation challenges of one of the few wildlife habitats in the world. Elephant The numbers are rising.
In the past 30 years, the number of wild elephants in China has doubled to more than 300-but their habitat has shrunk by nearly two-thirds during the same period.
