When we travel, we usually carefully plan our journeys and choose the route we will follow to find the fastest, most comfortable, cheapest, or most scenically attractive, depending on our priorities. We are not the only species that makes periodic movements. Many other animals, such as herbivores that live in social groups, also do so in search of the best pastures and water sources depending on the time of year. This is the case with zebras, wildebeests, and gazelles, among many others. It may seem that they move guided simply by their survival instinct, without giving it much thought, but as Emilio Berti and his collaborators from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research, the Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, the University of Oxford, and also the organization Save the Elephant have just demonstrated, they are guided by their movements.

Every era has its elephant in the room. That obvious thing we don't want to see, that problem we refuse to identify, to discuss. What is it that happens to us today, strangely unnoticed despite being right before our eyes? For centuries it was patriarchal machismo, finally unmasked. Also the abuse of nature, which has now turned against it. Or racism, which still lingers, if not reigns supreme.

They are already more than 500 kilometers north of their natural habitat and have been travelling for a year. They are a herd of 15 Asian elephants that migrate through China without anyone knowing what their goal is. According to experts, it is the longest, and possibly strangest, migration ever seen. Perhaps they are looking for better food; perhaps they have lost their way; perhaps they are a fearless bunch, like the protagonists of so many fantastic films. Scientists from all over the world are fascinated by the case - migrations are common in the species, but it is surprising that they do not settle anywhere and simply choose to keep on walking - and Chinese authorities have deployed an operation of 400 workers who follow them to protect them but also the population they meet as they go along. The adventures of the elephants have generated so much expectation that they are already television stars: on the Chinese state channel, they broadcast their adventures live, 24 hours a day.