This young buffalo found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time, as an angry elephant was not in a good mood and was attacking anything in its path.
Winter in the bush is harsh on many animals, especially elephants. Elephants require close to 100 liters of water per day, so when there isn’t much water around, elephants become highly stressed out and their behavior changes drastically.
On this particular afternoon, in the dry, open areas that surround the Mopani Rest Camp in Kruger National Park, this bull elephant was desperately searching for water. The natural pans of water that are normally present during the rainy season have all dried up. That means the only source of water is the man-made waterholes that are scattered among the Mopani thickets.
As the elephant approached the waterhole, he noticed that he was not the only one that was here. A lone buffalo had also decided to come down to the water to drink and was now just minding his own business, sitting some way away from the waterhole. But the elephants already had heightened stress levels, and their desperation to drink triggered a nerve!
Without warning, the elephant charged in at the sitting buffalo, not even giving the buffalo enough time to get to its feet. Before the buffalo knew what hit it, there were hoofs in the air, and it had a massive elephant bull on top of it.
The elephant pushed and shoved the buffalo until the buffalo was pinned down. That’s when the elephant took it to the next level; it didn’t stop there. The elephant took a step back, lined the buffalo up, and, with all its force, charged the buffalo with its tusks.
The elephant tusks pierced through the skin of the buffalo with ease; a small squeal was all the buffalo could let out. His tusks went so far into the buffalo that when he lifted his head, he lifted the entire buffalo as well. It was a scary sight to see the buffalo skewered on the elephant’s tusks hanging in midair!
When the buffalo fell to the ground, the elephant continued his assault, but by this time the buffalo was already long gone. This didn’t stop the elephant that just kept going back and forth, and stabbing the buffalo until it was certain that the buffalo was not going to move. It then just lifted its head and casually walked off to the water.
