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Thread: A new life

  1. #1
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    Default A new life

    Canon Eos 7D
    ISO 400
    f7.1
    1/125 sec
    Canon 100-400mm @285mm


    Brave new elephant by egilio, on Flickr

    The story...
    I had a rare sleep in, but was disturbed by elephant screaming just behind our camp. Usually this subsides in a little while, but this time it persisted, and was very intense. We were wondering what was happening. An injured elephant? A dead elephant? Bulls harassing females?

    So we jumped in the car and went to have a look. We found a tiny baby elephant lying on the ground, with a herd of about 15 animals around it. The baby still wet and the mothers back legs covered in blood. The placenta still had to come out.
    We watched in amazement how the little one tried to get up, and fall, and get up and fall. And all excitement going on. About 4 bulls were attracted to the seen and were obviously aroused. Possibly by the hormones which were released because of the birth. From time to time they chased the females, causing a lot of screaming from the females.
    I can only imagine how frightening it would be for the little one, lying there and seeing all those big legs and trunks rush by, and occasionally getting kicked. But otherwise the mother and others were very gentle with the baby and the mother and another female spent considerable time covering up the remains of the birth.
    The herd itself was very calm and let us stay very closely without showing signs of disturbances. They even went to sleep lying down! At one point 7 of them were lying down and sleeping all around us! Not even getting up when a car started up and moved off.
    You can still see the umbilical cord in the image.

  2. #2
    Ken Watkins
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    Emil,

    What a wonderful moment it must have been for you, I have seen a few fresh Elephants but nothing like this, they are normally pretty well hidden.

    Normal critiquing should not be applied to something as good as this, but do you by any chance have any more at the bottom?

    That eye is just perfect

  3. #3
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    PRICELESS !!!!!!!
    TFS

  4. #4
    Brendan Dozier
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    What a great moment you captured, Egil! Great expression, and nicely composed. Thanks for the story as well.

  5. #5
    Ken Watkins
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    Egil,

    I tried to send you a private message but your inbox is full.

    I am perplexed as to the number of comments versus the number of views given, I really have no idea how anyone can fail to appreciate the beauty of this image and the rarity of it, totally sad.

  6. #6
    Lifetime Member Rachel Hollander's Avatar
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    You picked the right day to sleep in. Great story and image to go along. I agree image would be better with more room below.

    TFS,
    Rachel

  7. #7
    anujgandhe
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    You said it all... priceless... You witnessed something beyond a normal eye...

  8. #8
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    Thanks for the comments :)
    Sadly no more room below :(
    I've cleared my inbox Ken. Sorry for the delay, I was a few days out in the field...no sleeping in!

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