Rare Pictures: Crocodile Attacks Elephant .

.nationalgeographic ^

[JoeProBono]

Although elephants are very unusual prey for Nile crocodiles, the 20-foot-long (6-meter-long) reptiles will occasionally ambush and take down large animals—including dozens of people annually, experts say.

[ETL]

[NonZeroSum]

So National Geographic considers people to be animals these days?

So what, do you think they're plants?

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

What a Croc! Sorry, I could not resist.

[JRandomFreeper]

I carefully didn't say anything about the calf, because a) it's a bull and b) calves die and c) some folks don't like to think about that.

/johnny

[JoeProBono]

[Vendome]

LOL

[Celtic Cross]

Poor planning on the croc’s part.

[ETL]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocodilia

[JoeProBono]

[Domestic Church]

Immediately thought of Ruyard Kipling’s Just So stories and pulled my teens to see the picture and said “How the elephant got it’s trunk” but they all started talking about how the Rhino got it’s skin!

[ETL]

[fabian]

hehehe

[ETL]

[HokieMom]

The Limpopo River!

[ETL]

[ETL]

[LRS]

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

Nope! The croc did not die.

As you click on each of the photos, the story unfolds in the extended captions below them. Here are a few excerpts from the last 2 photo captions....

During the attack, the elephants were able to move away from the water with the crocodile still hanging on to the adult
.....guides in the Zambian park had never before seen such an encounter.
Even for the formidable Nile crocodile, bringing down an elephant is no easy task, suggesting the ambush may have been an act of desperation or a simple mistake, according to Don Boyer, San Diego Zoo's curator of herpetology.
[One obvious explanation they omitted: The croc forgot to put in his contact lenses that morning. This kind of thing happens to me all the time]
"Predators can make mistakes," Boyer said. "They can take on something and then say, Wow, hindsight is 20/20, and this was a big mistake."
This particular clash of the titans had a happy ending.except perhaps for the hungry crocodile.
"The elephant managed to turn, but the croc was still hanging on," photographer Nyfeler said. "Then the little baby somehow stumbled over the croc, and the croc released the elephant.
"The croc went back into the water, and both elephants just ran away."

[JRandomFreeper]

Lucky croc. Crazy Red or Crazy Angus would have just stayed there and danced a little stomp number on it's head. But they were bulls (longhorn and angus), and momma had a baby to take care of.

At the risk of sounding like the crazy uncle: I once built a shack in a 3 acre pasture that I had to share with 2 mature bulls. We reached an agreement. And black bears and cougars never cracked open my little shack to get the goodies inside.

/johnny

[Polynikes]

I saw some Nat Geo footage a few years ago of a couple of lions trying to take down a juvenile elephant. The skin was to tough for the lions to inflict much more than some superficial scratches. The baby elephant was screaming bloody murder,then Mommy showed up. She looked and sounded like a M-1 Abrams coming out of the bush. The look from the lions was priceless. “ Oh S***! Feet don't fail me now”