My First Photo Editing Attempt (Take 2)

Still needs more contrast. Edges are still too soft.

I'm going to again have to recommend you not make the background black. There are many times where a black background will not work, and this is one of them. The elephant is small in the image, so a black background will create dead space that adds nothing to the image. On top of that, the lighting of the outdoors does not correspond with the artificial black. If you are trying to recreate what Sartore does, he puts the animals against a black wall or in a black box, which makes it look natural. A rule of thumb I go by in editing is if it doesn't look good to me, then it won't look good to others. I think this picture has a lot of potential, especially if you crop it vertically on the elephant. To go further in depth I need to see the background.

Perhaps something like this would look better on a close-up. I appreciate all of the constructive feedback.