SKUKUZA – Some visitors to the Kruger National Park have been subjected to the aggressive, sometimes unpredictable behaviour of elephants, having their vehicles turned over or charged on wilderness walking trails.
Although it is less common for these mammals to fight with other animals, it does happen and Kruger lovers saw this yesterday when the breathtaking, yet shocking video of such an incident by LatestSightings.com went viral yesterday.
Mr Ros Stansell took a video of an elephant trampling a buffalo to death in October last year. The incident took place on the S48 in the Mopani area of the park. “It happened at the waterhole. There was a huge herd of elephants with lots of calves. We then noticed a stray buffalo of about one year old. It was obviously separated from the herd and in need of water. The elephants weren’t going to entertain this need,” Stansell explained to Mr Nadav Ossendryver, founder of LatestSightings.com
The elephant charged the buffalo and killed it. “We had mixed emotions, watching this event. I could not believe an elephant would do this. Scary how protective they are when they have young calves with them.”
It is hard to say whether it was a bull or cow. Dr Markus Hofmeyr, head of veterinary wildlife services at SANParks said that it is uncommon for elephant to attack other animals. “A possible explanation could be that it was an elephant bull in musth. This makes them more aggressive and unpredictable. It could have been irritated by the buffalo. The animal could also have experienced more stress because of the warmer weather and dryer conditions.”
He said that although cows have been known to attack other animals if their offspring were under threat, it is still uncommon. In fact, elephant cows are even less likely to attack other animals than the bulls.
For more amazing moments captured on video be sure to visit Latestsightings.com
