Photo of the Day

an elephant emerging from the Shire River, Liwonde National Park, Malawi
August 12, 2015

Water for Elephant

A bull elephant fully emerging from the Shire River in Malawi’s Liwonde National Park surprises a boat ferrying Your Shot member Szakács Cukrász, who snapped this picture as the vessel quickly reversed. Cukrász and others had thought that the water was much deeper, having only seen the elephant’s head and trunk as they approached in the boat. “The bull suddenly [stood] up in the shallow water and ran toward us,” he writes, adding that this “was the last shot.”

Explorer: Warlords of Ivory premieres August 30 at 8 p.m. ET/PT on National Geographic Channel.

Armed groups help fund operations by smuggling elephant ivory. Can fake tusks with hidden GPS trackers thwart them? See our coverage in "How Killing Elephants Finances Terror in Africa."

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now »

Photograph by Szakács Cukrász, National Geographic Your Shot
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