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An elephant matriarch in Kenya that recently died of onetime long time was an telling sight to the very end , thanks to a yoke of tusks that were so unusually foresighted that they resemble those of a woolly mammoth .
The elephant , known as F_MU1 , lived in Kenya ’s Tsavo neighborhood for more than 60 eld , according to wildlife lensman Will Burrard - Lucas , who captured stunning image of the imposing pachyderm in the weeks prior to her death .
The astounding sweep of this old female elephant’s tusks recalls an extinct relative — the wooly mammoth.
F_MU1 was a " big tusker,“an African elephantwith tusks long enough to brush the terra firma , Burrard - Lucas of late wrotein a web log post . He visited Tsavo in August 2017 with the Kenyan nonprofit organization Tsavo Trust , to document the radical ’s wildlife - preservation work . And it was there that Burrard - Lucas first glimpse the stately elephant , whom he dub " Queen of the Elephants " in his mail . [ Elephant Images : The large creature on estate ]
The mathematical group caught up with F_MU1 and other elephants in a clarification , and Burrard - Lucas snap her using a remote control - moderate , robot - put on camera visit BeetleCam . He choose the BeetleCam because it travels close to the ground , so its low - slung perspective would showcase the astonishing length ofthe elephant ’s tusk , Burrard - Lucas pen .
Over several days , Burrard - Lucas photographed F_MU1 near watering muddle and acacia trees ( where she feed ) , with the beast sometimes draw only inch off from the rolling television camera . Though she was old and very skinny , she raise to be " an prodigious issue , " Burrard - Lucas said .
F_MU1’s tusks were so long that they brushed the ground in front of her.
" If I had n’t looked upon her with my own heart , I might not have believed that such an elephant could survive in our world , " he write .
F_MU1 died of natural causes , but big tusker usually are n’t so lucky , as their massive tusk make them targetsfor ivory poachers . In 2017 , poachers killed and cut up a big tusker named Satao II who was nearly 50 long time old ; one of the creature ’s tusks weighed 114 lbs . ( 51.5 kilograms ) and the other matter 111 pound . ( 50.5 kilogram ) , The Guardianreportedthat yr .
To date , only about 25 openhanded tuskers remain in the wild , according to The Guardian .
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