Due to their intelligence, empathy, and size, elephants are often considered to be gentle giants by those who have never seen them fight. The careful way in which they navigate the terrain around them helps to prop up this perception.
In this footage, taken by Judy Lehmberg in India, these titans collide in a fierce battle that shows just how much weight, strength, and fury they can bring to bear against an opponent when the need arises.
Indian elephants might be slightly smaller than their African cousins, but they’re no less dangerous because of this, and the males still exhibit competitive tendencies that result in confrontations like these.
Not The Time To Hold Hands
The two elephants began facing off against each other with plenty of posturing to open the proceedings. Only one was visible at the beginning of Judy’s footage as, despite their size, a bush masked the other.
They advanced on each other, the second elephant coming into view, with their trunks held high in an attempt to make themselves look bigger and more intimidating. Both animals also had their ears flared out to try and scare their opponent into backing off.
These tactics are also often paired with a fake charge to scare potential threats away, but in this scenario they were up close and personal from the beginning. So personal that at one point their trunks even curled around each other as if they were holding hands.
This moment didn’t last long before both elephants broke the contact, and it could even have been some kind of test of strength, more akin to an arm wrestle than anything else.
Line Them Up And Knock Them Down
For a brief moment, it looked like all of the posturing, trunk flexing and ear flapping might have worked, and the elephants might decide that actually fighting each other wasn’t the best idea overall.
Not only did the elephants take a step back from each other, but one of them also turned slightly so it was no longer face on with the other. This gave it the impression of being a little less aggressive, and suggested that it might be considering disengaging.
This brief moment passed quickly, however, and it became clear that the only reason these huge animals had opened up the distance between them was so that they could line up their charge, and to have more room to build up a bit of speed.
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A Very Real Charge
There was no more time for posturing, and the second elephant to come into view replaced the concept of false charges with a very real, and very solid charge.
Once it had lined itself up to face its opponent, it quickly picked up the pace and even though there was only a short distance between them, it had the acceleration necessary to crash their heads together with an almighty collision.
The other elephant planted its feet and tried to take the blow, but it couldn’t hold out against the force of the charge, and quickly started losing ground. Tusks and trunks were all involved now as the fight turned vicious.
The outcome of the fierce battle remains unknown, as Judy had to hurriedly get out of the way of the rampaging elephants. When encountering animals like these in the wild don’t get too close, or come between them and their herd.