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Africam captured this dramatic incident on one of their remote cameras situated at Great Plains Conservation’s property, Kenya’s ol Donyo Lodge.
The footage opens with a picture of tranquillity: a giraffe stands silhouetted against a dramatic sky. No sign hints at the violence about to unfold.
As the giraffe lowers its head to drink, an elephant enters from the right. Still, nothing unusual here.
When giraffes bow to drink, they are especially vulnerable. That the giraffe does so with the elephant nearby, suggests that it has no qualms about its presence.
Continuing its approach, the elephant seems to be watching the giraffe…
All of a sudden, the elephant flares its ears; the first hint of its displeasure…
When the giraffe ignores the warning, the elephant escalates its threat, advancing with a shake of its massive head.
The giraffe reacts immediately, lifting its head and moving away from the water. But would that be enough to appease the angry bull?
As the elephant lashes at the giraffe with its trunk, the giraffe turns to leave…
However, it seems that the giraffe is not moving fast enough and the elephant sets off in pursuit.
Rounding the waterhole, the elephant then attacks the giraffe, driving its tusk into the panicked giraffe’s belly. Showing immense strength, it easily lifts the giraffe from the ground.
As the giraffe lands, it is fortunate not to lose its footing in its desperate effort to escape. Turning towards the camera, the giraffe sets off at a gallop.
As it runs past the camera, part of the giraffe’s bowel protrudes from its belly. The elephant’s tusk likely inflicted the injury during the initial attack.
As the giraffe disappears from view, the elephant – with ears still threateningly flared – continues its pursuit for a few paces. Then, as suddenly as it erupted, it settled to a more relaxed pace.
Sometimes, elephants can become protective of scarce resources resources such as water. Their aggression is indiscriminately aimed at everything, from inanimate objects to flocks of birds.
Therefore, in the video, we can surmise that the elephant demanded absolute ‘possession’ of the small waterhole. Perhaps, it was concerned about the giraffe making the water murky, and not pleasant for drinking.
When the giraffe unwittingly failed to surrender its place quickly enough, the bull deemed that sufficient cause to physically attack.
The giraffe, unfortunately, did not survive the incident; its body was found about just twenty minutes later by members of the Great Plains Conservation team.