On May 11, 2015, during the hot dry season in south-central Africa, water became a scarce commodity for all animals, and in the South Luwanggua National Park in eastern Zambia, a female elephant with her baby elephant was tired of searching for water, perhaps separated from the elephant herd, and only the two of them were walking on the hot land, slightly lonely.
Finally the mother elephant and the baby elephant found a puddle of water, they walked quickly to the water's edge, put their long noses into the water and began to drink bitterly, just as they concentrated on drinking water, but did not know that danger had come, a pair of thieves' slippery eyes appeared on the surface of the water, and they were quietly approaching them. Suddenly, the "small eyes" in the water catapulted out, and it bit the nose of the female elephant with lightning speed, and the guy in the water was completely exposed to the female elephant, which was an adult Nile crocodile lurking here!
The mother elephant immediately felt the pain coming from the other end of her nose, and in a hurry, she began to pull with the Nile crocodile, and the baby elephant was frightened and circled around the mother. The Nile crocodile is a master of ambush, once bitten by it, it is difficult for the prey to escape, but this time it is the king of Africa - the African elephant, can it succeed?
Lux vs Killer
Crocodiles often perform their unique skill of death tumbling when biting prey, that is, while biting the prey, they take their body vertically as the central axis and begin to roll clockwise or counterclockwise, thus completely tearing the prey to pieces. If someone wants to experience the power of death rolling, then you can take a pair of pliers to pinch a piece of meat on your body, and then start to twist in a circle in one direction, and experience it to know how powerful this unique skill of the crocodile is!
The crocodile used this trick to deal with wildebeest and other animals, but when the crocodile was planning to repeat the same trick on the elephant in front of it, it found that it thought a little too much, only to see that the female elephant used a strong nose to almost lift the crocodile's entire body, to know that the elephant's nose is composed of 40,000 muscles, and the total number of muscles on the human body is only about 639 pieces, the elephant can easily roll up hundreds of kilograms of trees with its nose, so the crocodile is carried by the elephant with its nose, and it is dragged to the shore by swaying left and right!
After reaching the shore, the crocodile lost all its advantages, and the baby elephant also seemed to understand its mother's intentions, and began to sit vigorously on the crocodile's body, a small elephant weighed nearly a ton, and the mother elephant also began to step on the crocodile with her feet, in this way, the crocodile finally could not support the release of the mouth under the "Tarzan pressure" of the elephant women.
Eventually the mother elephant suffered some minor injuries, the baby elephant was frightened, and the crocodile, although not dead, lay on the ground like a dead fish, estimating that it would take some time to recover.
If you think about this ending, it is also completely reasonable, the Nile crocodile as the largest crocodile in Africa can reach a maximum length of 6 meters, weighs up to 1 ton, and the bite force is also the strongest animal on the African continent, up to 2268 kg.
Although there are these terrible advantages, it can be said that the odds of winning against African elephants that can weigh up to 10 tons can be said to be very slim, and the height of African elephants can reach up to 4 meters, and when looking at crocodiles, it is completely down- and it is very convenient to launch a stampede attack.
Elephants, on the other hand, are social animals, and it is rare for a female elephant to lead the cubs out alone, if a group of elephants is attacked by a crocodile, then the crocodile will be even more miserable, all adult elephants will attack the crocodile, at the feet of the giant elephant, I am afraid that any crocodile will eventually be crushed into a meatloaf! And even if the crocodile encounters a single elephant and successfully bites the elephant's eye or throat, the result is a lose-lose situation.
In October 2019, a similar incident occurred in Luangua Park in Zambia, where a Nile crocodile bit the vital point of an African elephant, but the elephant, feeling that its life was not safe, lay directly on the crocodile, and the crocodile was crushed to death on the spot, and the elephant died of his injuries.
It can be said that elephants can rarely become the prey of crocodiles, and crocodiles will occasionally ambush elephants drinking water or crossing rivers, so why should crocodiles desperately attack under such a disparity in strength? Isn't this the same as giving away a head?
Low IQ mistakes
For elephants, they hardly attack crocodiles, and as one of the most intelligent animals on land, elephants have a very high IQ, which is between 70-80, which is equivalent to the IQ of a human 4-5 year old child. Coupled with the fact that elephants are vegetarian (who says to eat vegetarian weight), they will not take crocodile meat to fill their hunger, so there is no need to attack crocodiles, unless a crocodile attacks the elephant members, the elephant may take the initiative to attack the crocodile in order to get revenge.
But the crocodile situation is completely different, the reason is very simple, that is, the crocodile is famous in animals "no brain", its brain weight is only 30 grams, compared with the elephant's 4000 grams of brain, the crocodile's IQ is obviously rubbed by the elephant on the ground. Although crocodiles are relatively intelligent among reptiles, they are also limited to reptiles, which belong to the large ones in the colt, because all reptiles belong to the category of "no brains".
Because crocodiles have a particularly low IQ, they don't even have the ability to "know people", which means that no matter how long you keep crocodiles, it is impossible for crocodiles to remember you. The crocodile's brain is almost a reflex arc, which is to hear the sound, then bite the object that makes the sound, and then swallow. This is also why crocodiles can be seen attacking a wide variety of animals, as long as it is at the water's edge, whether you are a lion or an elephant, it dares to launch an ambush without considering the consequences at all, because the crocodile does not have the intelligence to "consider the consequences"!
In terms of strength and intelligence, crocodiles have almost no chance of winning against elephants, but is this really the case? Is it true that crocodiles have no chance of succeeding in attacking elephants?
Home field advantage
Although the success rate of crocodile ambushing elephants is not high, but it is not completely impossible to succeed, if the crocodile attacks the elephant on the shore, most of the consequences are dragged to the shore, and the crocodile on the shore is equivalent to losing half of the combat effectiveness, and there is a good chance that it will fail.
However, if the crocodile's home field, the water, it still has a certain probability of victory, because when the elephant passes through the deeper waters, the buoyancy will offset some of its own gravity, so that the elephant will be greatly reduced when using the stampede weapon.
And the elephant who lives on land for a long time, its breath holding kung fu is completely inferior to the crocodile, if this time by the crocodile bites the nose, then the elephant can not last long, plus the crocodile is generally gathered together to live, the water will often lurk a large group of crocodiles, when a crocodile attacks the elephant after the sound, other crocodiles will be attracted by the sound, so that in the water in this home advantage often the elephant will become the crocodile's meal.
Therefore, the crocodile attack on the elephant is mainly divided into two situations, the shore and the water, if it is on the shore, it is almost impossible for the crocodile to kill an African elephant, but in the water, the probability of the crocodile winning will be greater.
Resources:
Mai Dong "Too Brutal! Animal bite force competition" CNKI 2016-07-05
Shanxi Agriculture 《The largest animal on land - African elephant》CNKI 2008-12-01
Li Qi, "African crocodile ambushes elephants" CNKI 2011-06-15
Land Bridge Crocodile: The Largest Reptile CNKI 2011-02-05
Author: Invincible Iron General Review Lamb Proofreader: Plum