A continuing series of elephant photographs. Missing tusk and broken tusk. Unknown stories in the life of this elephant. Moremi Game Reserve, Botswana.
photograph by Cheryl Merrill
Your Daily Elephant
About Me
Cheryl Merrill’s essays have been published in Fourth Genre, Pilgrimage, Brevity, Seems, South Loop Review, Ghoti, Alaska Quarterly Review, Adventum and Isotope. “Singing Like Yma Sumac” was selected for the Best of Brevity 2005 and Creative Nonfiction #27. It was also included in the anthology Short Takes: Model Essays for Composition, 10th Edition. Another essay, “Trunk,” was chosen for Special Mention in Pushcart 2008.
She is currently working on a book about elephants: Larger than Life: Living in the Shadows of Elephants.
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Reblogged this on O LADO ESCURO DA LUA.
Thank you.
Is this an older elephant? How does he manage to eat, or defend homself?
Hi Carol – this elephant was with a group of males and his tusk was probably broken during a sparring match, but could also have been broken trying to push over a tree. The Savuti area is lacking in many of the minerals that help keep tusks strong. The missing tusk could be a genetic defect. As you know, trunks are more important for eating, and subservience to other males is the best defense. He’s large enough not to be attacked by lions. He was feeding on the mopane tree in the foreground.