Revenge of the Mama Elephant on the Bullying Buffalo?

There’s a post going viral on Facebook at the moment that says: “Here’s what happens when you don’t know who you are messing with.” Along with the caption are two pictures of a buffalo picking on a baby elephant…

And two photos of an adult elephant appearing to retaliate by throwing the buffalo high in the air.

The truth is these two stories are unrelated.

The first took place in Addo Elephant Park in South Africa in 2014. And the second happened in Kenya’s Maasai Mara game reserve earlier this year.

Snake handler, and animal enthusiast, Barry Greenshields told SAPeople both are true stories… but separate.

With the first story, “the young elephant was part of a herd, and was pulling a bit of attitude and the buffalo got fed up…” says Barry. “But the young elephant was ok… just had a bit of a bruised ego.”

The buffalo in the second story was not so lucky. Its injuries were fatal after being tossed in the air and trampled by an angry elephant that it tried to take on. The photos were captured by holidaymaker Kimberly Maurer (56) and published in the UK’s Daily Mirror.

Apparently the buffalo was awoken from a deep slumber when a massive mother elephant, with calves, wandered past. The buffalo attacked… and the mother retaliated. Rangers say the buffalo was probably unwell to have behaved so oddly to the elephant’s presence.

See more photos here:
www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/incredible-moment-elephant-throws-500kg-7280878