Sadly for this youngster, however, this was no scene from Kipling’s Just So Stories but all-too-painful reality.
Under the watchful eye of its family, the baby elephant had gone to the edge of an African waterhole for a drink.
Tug of war: The baby elephant digs his feet into the mud as tries to pull his stretching trunk out of the crocodile’s jaws
Cooling off: There was no sign of the impending danger as the herd of elephants met at a watering hole to have a drink
Unfortunately, the leafy pond was perfect camouflage for a hungry crocodile, which clamped its teeth on to the end of its surprised victim’s trunk and began a tug-of-war.
Or, as Kipling writes in The Elephant’s Child: ‘And the Elephant’s Child spread all his little four legs and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose kept on stretching; and the Crocodile threshed his tail like an oar, and he pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and at each pull the Elephant’s Child’s nose grew longer and longer – and it hurt him…’
Spooked: Sensing something was wrong the elephants scattered in all directions, however the baby was left behind
A happy ending: Safely recovered, the baby takes a stroll across the waterhole wirth other members of the herd
How the elephant got his trunk: The Rudyard Kipling tale was brought to life at the African waterhole