In Sᴏᴜᴛʜ Aғʀɪᴄᴀ, an elephant pursued a predator away from its herd and left it hidden at the top of a tree in a frantic attempt to avoid becoming prey itself. Photographer Kevin Dooley, 60, caught the image of the leopard being compelled to climb a tree to try to escape the persistent elephant at the Madikwe Game Reserve.
Images showed the leopard running for safety as the elephant tried to reach up into the tree’s branches with its trunk. Kevil said that the leopard was smelled by the bull elephant from a mile away. He tried to chase the leopard away when he got ᴄʟᴏsᴇ to the tree, but the animal resisted.
Although it could be challenging to locate leopards in the wild, seeing an elephant and a leopard interact was undoubtedly a once-in-a-lifetime event. He was so sᴜʀᴘʀɪsᴇd.
In the wild, elephants have been observed pursuing powerful predators like lions or leopards, behaving aggressively to protect other younger animals in the herd. Elephants frequently create trumpeting noises to ғʀɪɢʜᴛᴇɴ off the predators, though they don’t always chase the prey into trees.
Low rumbles are used by herds as they move through the savannah to communicate with one another and warn one another of impending ᴛʜʀᴇᴀᴛs. Due to the protective group mentality of the herds, which includes other elephants charging or displaying violent body language to deter would-be assailants, individual predatory animals, such as leopards and lions, stand little chance against even the tiniest of adult elephants.
source: dailylifeworld.com
