A photographic lexicon from Petra Prager, a german researcher and photographer based out of Berlin, intended to show the individuality of elephants in a historical and documental way, and also to present a portrait of the characteristics of the individual elephants.
Timbo
African Bush Elephant (Loxodonta africana)
The African elephant is the largest living terrestrial animal. Its thickset body rests on stocky legs, and it has a concave back. Its large ears enable heat loss. Its upper lip and nose forms a trunk. The trunk acts as a fifth limb, a sound amplifier and an important method of touch. The African elephant's trunk ends in two opposing lips, whereas the Asian elephant trunk ends in a single lip. African bush elephants are bigger than Asian elephants. Males stand 3.2–4.0 m (10–13 ft) tall at the shoulder and weigh 4,700–6,048 kg (10,360–13,330 lb), while females stand 2.2–2.6 m (7–9 ft) tall and weigh 2,160–3,232 kg (4,762–7,125 lb). The largest recorded individual stood four metres (13.1 ft) to the shoulders and weighed 10 tonnes (10 long tons; 11 short tons).
Fossil members of Loxodonta have only been found in Africa, where they developed in the middle Pliocene.
Featured here is Timbo who was born in Africa and was tracked to the Sri Chamarajendra Zoological Gardens around 1976. Timbo was a resident at the Mysore zoo till his death on March 24, 2016.
Photographed: June 29, 2012 | Published: Sept 21, 2017.
