Up Close & Dangerous!

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Shot this huge bull (Indian Gaur) early morning at Tadoba couple of weeks ago, can anyone tell me why the right ear is cut?

Camera Model Canon EOS 40D
Shooting Date/Time 11/30/2009 6:50:29 AM
Shooting Mode Aperture-Priority AE
Tv( Shutter Speed ) 1/25
Av( Aperture Value ) 5.6
Metering Mode Evaluative Metering
Exposure Compensation 0
ISO Speed 400
Lens EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM
Focal Length 400.0 mm

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Reposting it with slight corrections. With Gaur one has to be careful with the black point and the fill light. Overdoing it will give a hazy appearance to the image.

It would have been nice if the diagonally placed bamboo at the top left corner were not there. A tight crop from left and top will also help. The shutter speed was very low. Wish you got this in better light.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Lakshminarayanan Nataraja]

Praveen,

The ears of bull gaurs (and even elephants) will be heavily disfiguired owing to frequent confrontations among themselves.

Few biologists claim that the elephants and gaur which inhabit scrub jungles will have ears pierced and torn. I have seen a cow elephant in Sathyamangalam (where vegetation is predominantly thorn and scrub) with seive like ears.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice image. The eye contact is good. The tip of the tongue showing is interesting. the repost has brought out the colours and details. Look forward to more.

[Praveen Siddannavar]

Lakshminarayanan thank you so much for providing info about cuts in the ears.

Sabyasachi - the repost by you is looking much better, thanks for the suggestions