Angry Elephant Picks On Small Bird At Watering Hole

The video shows that the phrase ‘pick on someone your own size’ does not apply if you are an elephant in the African wild.Show more

Elephants, the largest land mammals roaming this planet are fascinating in every sense of the word. Elephants dominate the landscape in the African wild in all aspects and these huge creatures do not let anything or anyone stand in their way. They do as they like and please, having the size and weight advantage over all other animals in the wild.

While on safari in the Kruger National Park, we watched a herd of elephants drinking water at a watering hole during the heat of the day. One elephant caught my attention, standing inside the water while cooling off and drinking water. The elephant’s attention suddenly moved from drinking water to something else when it quickly moved out of the water. The elephant looked focussed on something, but I couldn’t see what grabbed its attention. There was nothing around the elephant that could draw its attention besides a small water bird minding its own business along the edge of the water. ‘It surely can’t be that little bird’? I thought to myself. ‘It is so small and surely it poses no threat to the elephant’? My assumptions were all wrong and to my amazement, it was the small bird the elephant was focussed on. I was totally surprised by the elephant’s behaviour. Elephants are known to chase off other mammals around watering holes as they do not like sharing their space around the water with others, but a bird, weighing not even one percent of what the elephant weighs? I was still confused but totally amused at the same time. There the elephant was, speeding up, going after the bird with its loud screams and short trumpeting noises that followed as if the bird posed a massive threat or something. That was so hilarious to see. Every time the elephant got closer; the bird would just fly forward a little to keep a safe distance between them. The bird seemed way less fazed by the whole situation compared to the elephant. It was hilarious to watch such a massive animal chasing after something so small. For what reason? I do not know, probably just because the elephant can. Once the elephant reached the rest of the herd members, the elephant lost interest and continued drinking as if nothing happened.