"Addicted" elephant heads back after heroin detox cure

KUNMING, Sept. 4 (Chinese media) -- An Asian elephant who

became addicted to drugs after eating a banana smeared with heroin is headed

back to Kunming after a three-year detoxification program in China's

southernmost Hainan Province.

The 4-year-old male elephant, Xiguang, became

addicted in March2005.

He was among six elephants lured by animal smugglers

along the Sino-Myanmar border. They used the bananas as bait for the animals,

which were being brought into China's Dehong Autonomous Prefecture of Dai and

Jingpo nationalities.

Police captured the elephants on May 8 that year.

Xiguang was sent to a wild animal protection center in Hainan three months

later, after he was confirmed to be suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

Rehabilitation experts and vets gave him injections

of methadone, at five times human doses, for a year. Xiguang fully recovered

after rehabilitation.

Xiguang is expected to arrive at the Yunnan Wild

Animal Park in the capital city of Kunming on Saturday after a 1,500-km journey

home.

The Asian elephant is the largest land animal in

Asia, with an estimated 50,000 living in the wild throughout the continent.