This is Side Door, a podcast from the Smithsonian with support from PRX.

I'm Lizzie Peabody.

Something is mysteriously moving through China.

Something big.

It's not a site you see every day, a herd of elephants leaving their home turf making

their way through southwestern China.

They've damaged homes, broken into barns, and even a car dealership.

Rolled around in courtyards and gorge themselves on crops.

Their road trip started from a nature reserve in the south, through towns and fields, causing

a million dollars damage along the way.

The past year and a half, a herd of 15 Asian elephants has been eating and drinking its

way across China, kind of like a pack of Durham pub crawl.

And people are obsessed with these elephants.

Chinese news channels have devoted entire shows to the journey, even creating elephant holograms.

Oh, there's an elephant in our studio.

Let me try to pad it all.

So sweet.

But this is a virtual elephant so I can pad it.

Don't try this at home as it's dangerous to touch elephants.

If you haven't seen the footage of these elephants, it's pretty breathtaking, especially the shots

of the elephants sleeping in a big pile, like they're spooning each other.

And there's this little baby elephant smushed in the middle, kind of kicking its mom.

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