No jokes about swimming trunks, please...

This elephant, photographed by Frenchman Olivier Blaise, is actually on his way to work - although his version of commuting involves swimming between islands in the Bay of Bengal.

Mr Blaise will be presented today with the first prize in the 1995 World Press Photo Contest for the best "Nature and the Environment" image.

Like the other elephants on the Andaman Isles, this beautiful creature works in the timber trade, carrying cut logs along jungle tracks. It was born in captivity and belongs to a wealthy landlord on the island of Havelock.

At the age of about 60, rather than a gold clock, its reward will be retirement with freedom to roam, either on its employer's estate, or on a special reservation. For now, it will have to settle for Sundays off.

Like its four or five-ton colleagues, it enjoys playing and bathing in the sea, as temperatures on the islands can reach 40c. Understandably, it was not difficult to train it to swim to work on the next island.

Mr Blaise's entry, entitled: "Around the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal, elephants swim. They use their trunks as snorkels," taken in January 1995, was an instant hit with the judges. One of them, Roberto Koch, said: "It is a very good photo and secondly itshows elephants can swim. This is an important picture in terms of development of the knowledge of animal life."