Elephant Attacks Rhino [Pics]
58-year-old advocate, Louis Kok, and his wife, Marthie, from Pretoria, South Africa, captured these terrifying photographs of two of Africa's giants in an earth trembling battle.
The Kok's were photographing a rhino, with it's magnificent horns in an evening in September 2013, when a large, one tusked elephant in musth approached the rhino cow and her calf. Male elephants in musth, fueled by exorbitant levels of testosterone, are extremely dangerous, and will attack anything which stands in their path.
“Note at how exceptionally wide the eyes of the elephant are”, says Kok about the first photograph in the series which shows the elephant approaching from the bushes.
“The powerful black rhino cow is fearless and driven by powerful instincts to protect her calf. The rhino charged menacingly towards the elephant with her horns ready to strike”, continues Kok.
A split second later the mammoth elephant charged the rhino.
“The rhino disappeared in a cloud of dust when it engaged him, the elephant towered above everything”, says Kok.
“It was clearly no contest. The two horns of the rhino fell to the left of the elephant where they could do no harm, while the elephant thrust forward in a daunting display of it's overwhelming size and power”, Kok explains.
“The elephant immediately toppled the rhino which landed helplessly on it's back with it's legs in the air”, he continues.
“There was never any fight. The murderous elephant kept rolling the defenceless rhino around in the dust, while crushing it repeatedly under it's enormous weight in a traumatizing display of speed, agility and brutal power” says Kok.
“The rhino only managed painful squeals while we felt the earth tremble in the display of irresistible force”, Kok explains.
The attack which Kok calculated by the metadata stored on his camera, lasted only 1 minute and 13 seconds. “This was the longest minute of our lives”, continues Kok about the incident.
The elephant, satisfied with it's attack, disappeared as quickly as it appeared behind the bushes.
“The calf rushed to it's mothers side, where she made a few futile attempts to get up before giving up the struggle. The calf remained in the vicinity for some time, circling her mother and attempting repeatedly to help her up”, he continues.
The Kok's reported the incident to the management of the park, who said miraculously the rhino did manage to get up around two hours after the attack. The rhino was spotted about 300 meters from where she was attacked, the following day, but unfortunately died a few days later from her injuries.
“The calf was spotted the next morning in the company of another black rhino that formed part of the social group to which she and her mother belonged. She was three and a half years old and was already weaned, so her prospects for survival are good”, says Kok.
The Koks were requested not to identify the park to prevent the influx of poachers into the area.
#JustAnotherDayInAfrica
"Dubakupado" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
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