Traffic Tusk Force

It was a trunk call that caused a jumbo-sized problem for traffic police in China when this family of elephants were determined to reach a second herd on the other side of the motorway. The tuskers - a male, three females and their youngsters - insisted on crossing the busy Sixiao highway in Yunnan province, southern China, when they heard the other family group calling from the surrounding jungle.
So highway patrol officers formed an impromptu tusk force to make sure the beasts were not hurt as they scrambled over safety barriers on the 70mph road.
"Elephants are rarer than pandas in China so they are highly valued and protected animals here," explained one officer.
"We would rather stop the traffic all day than risk one of them being hurt. And when they make their minds up to go somewhere, there isn't much that can stop them," he added.
Police spokesman Lu Pin said: "It was quite a tense situation. The elephants were making a lot of noise on both sides of the road and that was attracting local people who were taking pictures and putting themselves at risk.
"We realised they were going to try and cross to get to the elephants on the other side and so we stopped the traffic allowing them to walk over the road undisturbed.
"But the smaller baby elephants could not get over the crash barrier, until they got a helping lift from mum.
"Once on the other side of the elephants joined up with the other herd and then they vanished into the forest together," he added.
Elephants have been driven to near extinction in China by the spread of man, with fewer than 300 estimated to be living wild in the south of the country.

Pictured: family of elephants crossing the road.