Heartbreaking photographs have emerged of an elephant which is so emaciated every rib is showing after a lifetime of being forced to parade in a festival costume.
Tikiiri, a 70-year-old female elephant, will work beside 60 elephants for the Perahera Festival in Sri Lanka this year - despite her frail body and ailing health.
The ten-day Buddhist festival features the decorated animals along with a myriad of performers including dancers, jugglers, fire-breathers and musicians.
The harrowing pictures of Tikiiri were shared by Save Elephant Foundation to mark World Elephant Day on Monday.
'Tikiri joins in the parade early every evening until late at night every night for ten consecutive nights, amidst the noise, the fireworks, and smoke,' the foundation said.
'She walks many kilometres every night so that people will feel blessed during the ceremony.'
While Tikiiri looks glamorous to festival-goers with her sparkly full-body dress, the costume covers the grueling reality.
'No one sees her bony body or her weakened condition, because of her costume,' the foundation wrote.