Gaur or Elephant....uncropped image

[V S Sankar]

Here is the full frame image of the animal we saw.We have seen Gaurs and Elephants in the wild before.But this one was different.The maximum height a Gaur attains is about 7.2 feet(as per Wikipedia).Now this one was close to 9m tall!How can somebody mistake a Gaur for an Elephant.Or is it that this particular one is the largest in the world?!Also dont you think the front portion of the animal is looking little strange.Is it a deformed animal?

Canon 400D,55-250IS,f5.6,1/15,ISO400

Regards

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice reflex of the photographer.

It is a huge bull Gaur.In the lower slopes of the Western Ghats, gaurs attain best development. Its height, to my mind, may be around 6-6.5 ft weighing around one tonne.
Thanks for sharing.
SaktiWild

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This is clearly a gaur feeding with its head down. You have mentioned 9 meter. I guess you wanted to say 9 feet? From the wide angle shot, given the scale of the trees and leaves, it is very clear that this is a full grown gaur. Height cannot be 9 feet either.

Did you not drive a bit ahead and your doubts would have vanished.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[V S Sankar]

We wondered then itself why there was confusion in making out what animal it was.It is very easy to tell a Gaur from an Elephant.But still we got doubtful.There was no question of moving forward.My friend was driving and he was motionless on seeing this animal.The road was narrow and we didnt want to take the risk of getting charged(whether Gaur or Elephant).It looked so strange and we never could see its front part.We were nervous.For a moment we thought this was an animal with some deformity becuase whatever we could see beyond the hump looked strangely shaped.......(sorry about the height mentioned.Its neither 9m nor 9 feet!)

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

It's a male Gaur.If a massive-built Gaur bends its body and lowers down the head too much, the image will look like this. An out of focus image may also cause some optical illusion.
On September 27, 1963,the photograph of a bull Gaur taken by M.Krishnan at Theppakkadu, Mudumalai looks similar to this one.Thanks for your comments, I like it.
SaktiWild