the parasitic pachyderm

m found this pachyderm hiding in the hills behind the house. There aren't many other animals left there. Lots of squirrels, who've really ripped a lot of the trees to shreds, some raccoons, pheasant, and other birds. Snakes: mamushi, the poisonous ones, which rarely are seen larger than a foot long or so,  and aodaisho, which get considerably larger (I've seen them five or six feet long and as big around as my arm) but are harmless. There's one other poisonous one whose name I can't remember, but its fangs are far back in its mouth, so unless it can really get a grip on a small part of your body--a finger, say--there's not much to worry about. But this dude in the photo is the largest animal I've seen around here, though I think m's got it trained fairly well by now.