Even the national park staff said this was the first time they had witnessed a crocodile attack a mother and baby elephant like this.
Although elephants are not usually prey for crocodiles, the ferocious 6m long animal still jumped out of the water and grabbed the mother elephant’s trunk.
“Although alligators are getting larger, most of their diet is fish or other small animals, ” said Jason Bell, assistant curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Philadelphia Zoo.
“However, there are still many opportunistic crocodiles, often lying in wait for animals to come near the water’s edge to attack. These are often baby hippos, African buffalo… all of which can be taken advantage of by crocodiles and dragged into the water, ” Mr. Jason added.
Despite the sudden attack, the mother elephant was able to run away from the water, but the adult crocodile was still determined not to give up. According to Nyfeler, a tour guide at the park, this was the first time they had seen such a scene.
Even for the fierce Nile crocodile, taking down an elephant is not easy. There are many cases where the crocodile only realizes that it was a mistake after launching an attack because the opponent is too big. But no matter how big the prey is, hungry crocodiles still risk their lives to find something to put in their empty stomachs.
The mother elephant ran away but the crocodile still hung on to her trunk. Then a miracle happened, the clumsy baby elephant fell and landed right on the enemy. Thanks to that, the crocodile let go of the mother elephant and returned to the lake. The two mother elephants continued to run away.
In the end, thanks to a small, unintentional action by the baby elephant, the mother and baby elephant escaped from the stubborn crocodile. This was probably a happy ending for them.
