With tusks that each weigh over 100 pounds (45 kilograms) and often scrape the ground, “super tuskers” are elephants that live up to their name.
This rare trait is the result of a genetic variation that causes the tusks to grow faster and longer than usual. While it gives the elephants a powerful and distinctive appearance, it also makes them vulnerable to poaching.
Fewer than 30 of these giants remain in Africa, according to the Tsavo Trust, which monitors elephant populations in Kenya’s Tsavo Conservation Area.
Most of the surviving super tuskers, also known as “great tuskers,” are found in southern Kenya, where Italian-born photographer Federico Veronesi has spent years tracking and photographing them. His new book, “Walk the Earth,” the culmination of years of work in Kenya and beyond, pays tribute to the elephants he calls “the last witnesses of a world before humans took over the Earth.”
As a child growing up in Italy, Veronesi was captivated by African wildlife. That fascination led him to Kenya, where he eventually settled and began photographing the animals he had admired for so long.
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