The three tusked Elehphant of Nxai Pan
^{posted in Botswana Safaris on Thursday, June 17, 2010}

Professional Photographer, Stuart Arnold, was amazed to discover an elephant with three tusks!! While staying at the Kwando Nxai Pan camp he discovered the unusal elephant drinking at a near by water hole.

The tusks of an African Elephant grow continuously and those of the Bull Elephant can even grow up to 18 cm in a year. Tusks are an elephant's primary tool and are used for a variety of tasks such as digging or to strip bark from trees.

Just like Humans, elephant's tend to favour their right or left tusk. The most often used tusk, is generally shorter due to wear and tear. The majority of elephants have two tusks, but occasionally individual elephants exhibit abnormal growth which can include additional tusks. Such examples however are extremely rare!