What does the elephant sign on the highway mean?
2 Answers
The elephant sign on the highway is to remind drivers to stay alert while driving at high speeds to prevent elephants from crossing the road. This type of sign is mainly found in the Xishuangbanna region of Yunnan. Relevant details are as follows: 1. Due to tourism, many people in the Xishuangbanna area have domesticated elephants, and the region also has a rich population of wild elephants. Therefore, drivers should be cautious of elephant activity when passing through this area. 2. If you see a triangular sign with a cow in the suburbs, it is to remind drivers to watch out for livestock crossing, indicating that there may often be herders or livestock farms nearby. 3. These signs are meant to alert drivers to the presence of wildlife crossing the road and encourage them to slow down and avoid wildlife. A triangular sign with a deer is typically found in areas where wildlife frequently appears, including animals like deer, wild boars, and pandas.
I've been driving long-distance trucks for over a decade, and I often see these elephant signs on the border highways of Yunnan. These aren't tourism advertisements but warning signs alerting drivers to wild elephant activity nearby. Last week on the Kunmo Expressway, I witnessed a herd crossing the guardrails with my own eyes, which scared me into immediately reducing my speed to 60 km/h. These sections are most dangerous at dawn and dusk when elephants often come out to forage. My advice is to slow down and turn off high beams when you see these signs, especially at night—don't dazzle them with headlights. If you encounter a herd crossing the road, never honk to hurry them along; waiting quietly until they've moved away is the safest approach. We long-haul drivers treat these signs as lifesavers—wild animals don't follow traffic rules.
