Asiatic Elephant

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Elephas maximus.

Bandipur Tiger Reserve.

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, Canon EF 70-200 f2.8 L IS II USM, EF 1.4xII TC, ISO 500, f4, 1/50, full frame image.

I had attached the 1.4x II TC when I saw the elephant at a distance. It has a problem in its mouth. It immediately went into the bush. While returning on the same route about half an hour later, it was not alarmed and could get a chance to see it close.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Posting a crop of the mouth region. If you observe closely saliva was dripping down. It appears as a white streak just above the curved plant above the raised foot. I am not sure what exactly is the problem with the mouth. Whether there is just a swelling or an abscess or something else.

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Well documented. Everything looks Natural,saliva dripping down is also visible.Painful to see.There may be some injury and it appears that the thick outer skin of the right side of the mouth is hanging on left side.If this observation is correct, then the injury might have been caused by razor sharp edges of broken branches.Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Atul Sinai]

Well documented. Good that you were on the correct side to document the injury clearly.
Looks like this elephant may have trouble while feeding itself until the injury heals.

Loved the pose captured. Was the low shutter speed intentional?

Regards,
Atul

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Atul,
The slow shutter speed is intentional. I wanted the subject motion here, didn't want to freeze the subject. This was a low contrast situation with very low light due to cloudy sky and approaching evening. I decided to retain the original look without boosting contrast, saturation and changing the white balance.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi