This fatal confrontation between two usually peaceful herbivores was photographed by Louis Kok from Pretoria. It’s something that is seldom seen in the wild. Louis describes the encounter.

“This clash between elephant and black rhino happened so fast. The elephant only had one tusk and was in musth. It came out of nowhere and attacked a rhino cow and her calf. Eventually it disappeared into the bushes and the calf tried to help its mother up.

“I reporTED the incident to reserve management and they immediately visited the site. Apparently this particular elephant is infamous in the reserve and has been responsible for numerous aggressive confrontations. The injured rhino cow managed to stand and move away, but she died a few days later.

“As sad as this story is, it has a relatively happy ending: the calf was spotted with another rhino herd soon after.”