A baby elephant left an impression after falling asleep in a pile of sand – creating a perfect mould of his head and trunk.
One-year-old Asian elephant bull Anjan left the fossil-like image after nodding off in his enclosure.
His keepers at Chester Zoo were stunned when they discovered the immaculate imprint as they fed him breakfast on Saturday.
Posting pictures of the 4ft-long indentation on Twitter, the zoo said: ‘Elephants lie on their sides to sleep for around four hours a night – time for Anjan to create his amazing piece of animal art!’
Since tweeting the picture, the zoo has been inundated by fans begging for the sand sculpture to be preserved.
But sadly, the sand sculpture lasted only a few minutes and was wrecked by Anjan who walked through it moments after his keepers photographed it.
A zoo spokesperson said: ‘The print was unfortunately left very much in the middle of the elephant habitat and so some rather heavy footprints have since passed through.
‘Given the incredible reaction to the photograph though, I’m sure the keepers will keep an extra eye out for any other prints that are made in the future now though.’
It is not the first time Anjan has surprised his keepers.
He was born an astonishing three months after his due date and scientists feared his mother, Thi, had miscarried him.
But he was born in 2018 perfectly healthy at an incredible 25 months, three months longer than normal.
Anjan was named in honour of Anjan Nath, one of the leading conservation figures the zoo works with on a project in Assam, northern India.
