Incredible pic of baby elephant having trunk pulled by a crocodile

Incredible pic of baby elephant having trunk pulled by a crocodile

We wondered if he was pulling a fast one... but it looks like Rudyard Kipling may have been on to something. More than a century ago, Kipling told the classic tale of a baby elephant who got its little nose stretched into a trunk by a crocodile. And in an incredible scene which could have come straight from the pages of The Elephant's Child, this youngster's trunk was well and truly put out of joint yesterday. In Kipling's yarn, the croc clung on until the trunk could stretch no further. But this time, the predator was scared off by a nearby herd in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Photographer Johan Opperman, 38, was on hand to capture the incredible moment and said: "The elephants were just grazing in the area, drinking water and cooling down. "This crocodile then suddenly grabbed the baby elephant and made an attempted kill - it was hoping for a nice lunch. The herd went crazy, trampling and trumpeting, and scared off the crocodile. I've heard this is very rare. Crocodiles don't normally try to catch elephants."

We don't think this little fellow will sticking his trunk underwater again anytime soon... Extract from Rudyard Kipling's The Elephant's Child (1902) Then the Elephant's Child put his head down close to the Crocodile's musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful. "I think," said the Crocodile - and he said it between his teeth, like this - "I think today I will begin with Elephant's Child!' The Elephant's Child was much annoyed, and he said, speaking through his nose, like this, "Led go! You are hurtig be!" Then the Elephant's Child sat back on his haunches, and pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and his nose began to stretch. At last the Crocodile let go of the Elephant's Child's nose with a plop that you could hear all up and down the Limpopo.

The Elephant's Child sat there for three days waiting for his nose to shrink. But it never grew any shorter, and, besides, it made him squint. For, O Best Beloved, you will see and understand that the Crocodile had pulled it out into a really truly trunk same as all Elephants have today. Read more: www.mirror.co.uk... Go Camping for 95p! Vouchers collectable in the Daily and Sunday Mirror until 11th August . Click here for more information

This is news from today: 29/10/2010


Read more: www.mirror.co.uk...< br />

Cool pic. Sounds like somebody's lunch was spoiled lol.

Awesome pic.

Thanks for sharing it with us. S&F!

Yeah i saw that in the paper, Luckily the young elephant wasnt harmed- Within minutes the whole elephant herd turned up, trumpeting and stamping on the crocodile and i believe he let go. Lol, pretty funny story really.