by Cape Town – Addo Elephant National Park offers elephant viewing opportunities in SA as travellers are always guaranteed of seeing the World’s largest land animals roam freely in this Eastern Cape hotspot. But while elephants are typically associated with slow, graceful movements and gentle characters, one group of travellers recently got a view of what ɪʟʟ-ᴛᴇᴍᴘᴇʀᴇᴅ elephants are capable of.
New video footage published by Caters News Agency shows an elephant bull picking up a tiny calf with its trunk, and tossing it to one side like an old rag! The calf was filmed being shoved along by the bull elephant’s trunk before the impatient male loses his temper. He picks it up the 200-pound baby into the air before unceremoniously dropping him to one side.
The tiny calf can be heard squealing desperately, as the bull shoves it out of his way. It seems, however, that the massive male tries to help the calf upright again, but his robust movements – and the little ones’ instability – causes the baby to fall down again. Eventually the baby’s mother comes along and ensures her baby’s OK.
A few minutes later, the bull picks up and throws the calf to the ground again, after which the little one is taken into shelter between two elephant cows walking beside the bull. Eventually the bull is distracted by the sight of a female elephant and runs off towards it. They speculate that the bizarrely ᴀɢɢʀᴇssɪᴠᴇ move might be a way for the bull to show off his strength during ᴍᴀᴛɪɴɢ season.
The ʀᴀʀᴇ scene was seen by a group of tourists and their guide Jeni Smithies and photographer Lloyd Carter as they visited the Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa. Jeni said: “I began to video the scene, not knowing that I would capture extremely ʀᴀʀᴇ footage of a bull taking out his frustration on the calf that was in his way.”
Jeni added:”I was convinced that he was going to ᴄʀᴜsʜ the calf, we were complexed as to what his intentions were. Elephants are usually very protective and we have never seen a bull mishandle a calf. I firmly believe that it was sheer sᴇxᴜᴀʟ frustration. The calf was in his way and with severely heightened ᴛᴇsᴛᴏsᴛᴇʀᴏɴᴇ levels, he simply took out his frustration on what was between him and all the cows.”
