Jungle Jim's Animal Portraits: A Walking Nap?

One of the things you may not know about Jungle Jim is that he doesn't go to Disney's Animal Kingdom all that often.  He is a dedicated full-time tourist who travels the world in search of the perfect Pina Colada or just the right pair of Bermuda shorts.  But when he does get to DAK, he often sends us more than a couple stunning animal portraits, like this beautifully detailed close-up of a bull elephant at Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Notice how his eyes are closed.  When I first picked this photo, I went back into Jim's files to look for another just like it but without what assumed was just blinking eyes.  Like most photographers, Jim takes dozens of images all at once to capture as many photos as possible.  And with this elephant he had about three dozen all from the same angle and all within the same thirty second timeframe as the elephant walked slowly across the field of view.  But what stunned me was that in every single photo, this guy had his eyes closed?  He was walking with his eyes closed?  Was it too bright?  Or was he taking an elephant's version of a midday nap?