by This young elephant got more than he bargained for when he ambled up to a water hole to slake his thirst. The young elephant doesn’t appear to see the waiting crocodile as he ambles over to the peaceful watering hole in the South Luangwa National park in Zambia.
Just moments after dipping his trunk in the water, it was grabbed by a hungry crocodile. The crocodile ɢʀᴀʙs hold of the elephant’s trunk, but it soon becomes clear that he has ʙɪᴛᴛᴇɴ off a lot more than he can chew by grabbing the huge beast. The startled young elephant soon makes light work of escaping from the hungry crocodile’s jaws, but by the startled look on it’s face you can tell he had a sʜᴏᴄᴋ. However, the crocodile was no match for the elephant, which managed to pull its trunk clear with no more than a few minor cuts.
But luckily for the elephant, the croc had ʙɪᴛᴛᴇɴ off considerably more than he could chew – and the astonished bull elephant was able to whip his trunk out of the reptile’s jaws with no more than a few cuts to remember the encounter by. In a scene reminiscent of the Rudyard Kipling story How The Elephant Got His Trunk, the startled ᴍᴀᴍᴍᴀʟ gives the sneaky crocodile a fright to show him who’s boss. The ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋ lasted only a few moments.
The remarkable scene was captured by amateur ᴡɪʟᴅʟɪꜰᴇ photographer Ian Salisbury, 62, at the South Luangwa National park in Zambia. Mr Salisbury, general manager of a safari lodge, said: “One of our guests had seen a crocodile try a similar ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋ on another elephant earlier in the day so, camera in hand, I went to see if there might be a repeat performance. The action was so quick – a couple of seconds – and fortunately I had the camera pointing in the right direction. Having spent 30 years in the African bush, I realise how lucky I was to catch the scene.”
Mr Salisbury said the elephant appeared surprised to find the crocodile at its feet. He added: “It actually screamed and trumpeted very loudly and having shaken off the croc, it kind of ʙʟᴇᴡ ɪᴛs ɴᴏsᴇ and fled rapidly into the bush along with other elephants – feeling rather chastened. For the croc, I think this has to be just the ʜᴜɴᴛɪɴɢ instinct – there is no way in the world that a croc could ever pull an elephant of this size into the water.” The elephant fled rapidly into the bush after the ᴀᴛᴛᴀᴄᴋ.
