Baby elephant and croc come to blows

Mother Nature must have been having a good hair day when she invented the elephant. They're great animals. Crocodile's, although definitely awesome, were probably conjured when she was, shall we say, less happy.

Throw the two together in a bout of animal fisticuffs and it's hard to pick a winner. Throw a baby elephant into the same one-on-one and only the most cynical of misers would want to see a croc victory.

Fortunately, this mini elephant survived that exact tete-a-tete as amateur photographer Johan Opperman was taking pictures of a family of African bush elephants grazing by a water hole.

Grabbing a well deserved drink, Dumbo was set upon by his toothy assailant, grabbing him by the nose. Brilliantly, hearing the baby's distress calls, the herd of elephants scared off the croc by running in, trumpeting and basically looking big and scary.

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Images: Johan Opperman/Solent News