An elephant in Kruger National Park went on the rampage at a watering hole, trumpeting and chasing hippos and terrorizing a baby hippo in a “one-of-a-kind interaction” at the famous park in South Africa.
Gordon Crundwell, 57, was on safari with his wife near Shingwedzi in the northern part of the park when he videotaped the bedlam as a result of a raging elephant. He shared the footage with Latest Sightings, which called it a one-of-a-kind interaction, as did Crundwell.
“In over 50 years of visiting game parks, I have never seen an elephant and hippo interaction like this,” Crundwell told Latest Sightings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miCZsTs-cM0&t=62s
The safari stopped at a viewpoint and noticed the watering hole with more than 25 hippos, and crocodiles lying on the bank. Then an elephant came down for a drink from the pool.
“But he seemed to get upset with the hippos and got into the water and started chasing them,” Crundwell explained.
“The elephant was getting more agitated and started thrashing and trumpeting, causing chaos in the pool. The elephant started chasing all the hippos out of the pool. During the commotion, a baby hippo was left alone on the sandbank. The elephant walked towards the baby and started pushing it around with his trunk, he then threw the baby in the air further up the sandbank.
“Luckily he left the baby hippo alone and returned to the water where he continued to trumpet and thrash the water around. The action did not stop there. The baby hippo seemed okay and returned to the water where he then followed the elephant. While the elephant was getting out of the water the baby hippo was nipping at his rear foot – this seemed to further agitate the elephant who then tried to kick the baby hippo away.”
At the 58-second mark, you can see the baby hippo chasing the elephant out of the water, attempting to fight back.
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“The baby hippo continued to follow the elephant out of the water where a rock blocked what appeared to be another angry attack on the baby hippo. The elephant lost interest quite quickly and walked away.”
The crocodiles certainly didn’t mind the mayhem.
“While the elephant was causing such a commotion, the crocodiles were feasting on the fish that had been chased onto the bank,” Crundwell said.
Photos courtesy of Latest Sightings.