The attack on a rhino and her calf at a watering well by a bull elephant is caught on camera in graphic detail.
The bull was walking over to the water hole as a mother rhino and her calf were taking a drink. Likely because she wanted to protect her calf, the mother ran up to the bull in an effort to keep him away. This didn’t turn out well for the rhinos, though, because the bull seems to want to display his dominance in response.
He charges at the pair, pushing the mother rhino over her calf as they both take a tumble. The rhinos don’t take any additional risks, and make a beeline away from the watering hole as the elephant trails them. Thankfully, in this scenario, all of the animals involved seemed to come away unscathed.
The dramatic encounter was filmed by Krishna Tummalapalli around Shishangeni Lodge in Kruger National Park, South Africa.
Krishna explained the the sighting to Latest Sightings:
“We were on a family trip to South Africa in early June 2019. We had been hoping to visit Africa for quite some time and needless to say, it didn’t disappoint! We went to the Kruger National Park and on our second day of safari – around 5 in the afternoon – at Shishangeni Lodge, I managed to take this video near the watering hole.”
“We were amazed that we could see something like the elephant become aggressive towards the rhinos. We were also worried for the baby rhino, especially after the elephant pushed the rhino mom over her own baby! We felt a bit more at ease once the rhinos started running away with seemingly no injury. Who knew that an elephant carries such power? As Indian Americans, we were used to Indian elephants which are not as big as African elephants. We think of rhinos as huge animals, but the elephant literally pushed the rhino around like it was nothing!”