Tusker(With Single Tusk)| Kabini

[Sucheth Lingachar]

Photographed at Kabini,
Nikon D3100, Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 300mm f/4D IF-ED + AF-S Teleconverter TC-14E II/14E

F/5.6, 1/2500s, ISO 800 , Full Frame

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice document. The 'Ganesha' carries deadly horizontal thick tusk. Other one might have been lost in combat or accident. The 'true' knee (like human being) has bent back. Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Mrudul Godbole]

Nice environment composition. Good details. The walking pose looks nice. Seems he might have lost it long time back. Nicely captured. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Nice to see this. The elephant is slightly angled away from you so its head is in shadow. Else, it would have looked great. The tusk might have been broken during a fight.

Evans in his book elephants and their diseases has mentioned that elephants lose one tusk either due to fight or injury. And some are also born with a single tusk.

RC Morris in his correspondence with BNHS writes "On cutting out the tusk of Major Brook Purdon's elephant we decided to see wehther there was any growth of ivory on the other side where a tusk should have been. The head was therefore cut in half and we discovered, completely encased in a thin layer of bone, a solid conical block of ivory about 9" long with a girth of about 11" at its base, the base being rounded. There was no sign of any disease having set in or any damage having occupied. This encased block of ivory was not pointing in the right direction but considerably inwards. I decided therefore to find out whether my rogue held any ivory in its head on its tusklesss side. Sure enough by cutting his head open I found a similar block of ivory measuring 9" length with a girth of nearly 14" round the centre of it. The base is also rounded, but with an extraordinary lump of ivory growing out of it. It is most curious, being irregular in shape with a thin ragged wall of ivory sticking out. The block of ivory was encased in this instance also in a thin covering of bone up to where the curious wall of ivory jutted out, and this was embedded in gristle which contained 6 little balls of ivory, two about size of marbles, two a little smaller, and two about the size of peas. It seems possible therefore that single tuskers, except those that have had the tusk broken of at or just inside the jaw in a fight or by accident, possess this curious block of ivory on their tuskless side.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice walking pose.the scene has a tragic tone to it..one tusked elephant among dead tree trunks..

TFS
Roopak

[Sucheth Lingachar]

Thank you Saktipada Panigrahi,Mrudul,Sabyasachi Patra, and Roopak for your valuable comments....

Sabyasachi Patra: Thank you so much for the Information regarding Single Tusk.