WINNER: George Dian Balan, WHEN MAMMOTHS RULED THE EARTH (ANIMALS 2025)

The climax of over 50 million years of elephant evolution, this Asian Super Tusker sports tusks of the relative size and shape of the southern mammoth, the ancestor of the woolly mammoth. While in the very present, we travel back in time. Very few people know that Asian elephants can grow such amazing ivory, as the African big tusked elephants are better known by the public. This image is timed to portray the moment the bull raised his head while eating, displaying his strongly curved, almost 9 feet long tusks against the canvas of a sky balanced by glorious clouds. The taking and submission of this image coincide with a new Jurassic World launch year, which re-ignites the public appetite for megafauna, and this finest elephant amongst great elephants is as close as one can get to past times that have captured our imagination.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.