Mother elephant protects baby from dangerous African wild dog

The video shows how a mother elephant protects her baby from a pack of dangerous and hungry African wild dogs, using her intimidating size and aggressive behaviour.
While driving along one of the main roads inside the Kruger National Park, we saw an elephant cow and her calf in the distance ahead of us, slowly walking in the middle of the road. Animals like walking on the tarred roads, as it is just the way of least resistance, specially when the bush is thick during the summer. As we approached closer, we noticed the mother elephant and her calf came to a standstill in the road and the mother elephant did not look happy. The mother elephant’s behavior changed quickly with her ears flapping, looking aggressive from behind. Once we got even closer, we realized the elephants bumped into a pack of African wild dog, who also love using the roads during their hunting expeditions. The African wild dog is a highly endangered carnivore species in Africa, and they hunt in packs, using the same strategy as wolfs. Wild dogs will take on any prey that they can run down and overpower with their numbers. Baby elephants are the perfect hunting size for these dogs but African wild dog hunting down a baby elephant is very rare as there is always one huge challenge or obstacle they must deal with, an angry and protective mother. The mother elephant made sure her baby was always safe, keeping it standing behind her while she would flap her ears and charge towards the wild dogs, letting out her intimidating and loud trumpeting sounds. The African wild dogs didn’t seem too faced by the threats of the mother elephant. The dogs didn’t run away all scared, but they got the message very clear to stay away from the mother and her baby. With the aggressive messages delivered, the mother elephant and her baby turned around and moved off safely back into the bush, while the dogs eventually lost interest and carried playing around in the road.