Prince Harry's Earth Day elephant photo accused of cropping out ugly truth

The cropped photo posted to the @sussexroyal Instagram account for Earth Day. Photo / Instagram

The Duke of Sussex has found himself in trouble with animal lovers for an Instagram post to the official @sussexroyal Instagram account to mark World Earth Day.

Prince Harry shared the image showing a bull elephant on a trip to Malawi, with the caption:

"Here @AfricanParksNetwork relocated 500 Elephants to another park within Malawi to reduce the pressure on human wildlife conflict and create more dispersed tourism.

"Every one of us can make a difference, not just today but every day. #earthday"

However, many social media users noticed there was something unusual about the crop of the photo.

The original photo from a 2016 trip to Malawi, showing the animal drugged and teathered. Photo / Royal.uk, Supplied

Showing just the front quarters of the elephant, the post was taken from a larger photo in a 2016 press release from Kensington Palace.

In the original picture the hind quarters can be seen tethered by rope.

Some have accused the Prince of doctoring the image he shared on social media, hiding an inconvenient truth that the animal was drugged an tethered at the time.

Speaking to the Mail Online, Wildlife photographer Christiaan Kotze accused the Prince of not doing enough "He is on the front line and has access that very few people including professional photographers would ever dream of having."

'This is us trying to slow him down.' Photo / Royal.uk, Supplied

The original release claims this photo had been taken by the prince personally. At the time the Prince described the photo as showing "Kester Vickery from Conservation Solutions trying to get this Bull Elephant to lie down."

It was a colossal task, and the picture shows just one of 262 elephants moved from the park.

The rope was only used as a last measure when the elephant "refused to lie down after it had been darted with tranquilliser. After about seven minutes the drug began to take effect and the elephant became semi-comatose, but it continued to shuffle for a while."

The Palace confirmed the image came from a 2016 trip to Malawi. Photo / Supplied, Royal.uk

Another photo in the release appeared to show Prince Harry on the other end of the rope, captioned "this is us trying to slow him down."

A spokesperson for Kensington Palace confirmed to The Metro that the picture in question was "not cropped deliberately and has been around since 2016 and widely shared."