Bull elephant makes his brother scream during wrestling match

It was during a late afternoon safari in the Kruger National Park that we came across a large herd of elephants scattered all around a large watering hole. When you find elephants near water during a safari it is always a good time to turn off the vehicle and observe for a while. Elephants love water a lot and besides their big thirst, elephants also loves swimming and playing around in the water. During this time elephants are at their most relaxed, keeping themselves busy with everything else but eating, mostly leading to amusing and entertaining behavior. While filming a part of the herd in front of us on the far side of the water going about their daily antics, we suddenly heard a huge a splash in the water to the near right side of us. Our attention was quickly moved to the commotion close to us. We saw a male elephant that literally just tackled his brother into the water during their wrestling match and started pinning him down. With an elephant already past the size of puberty, it is very difficult for them to get back up on their feet while lying down flat on their sides.

The bull elephant at the top clearly knew this and took the opportunity to show his brother that he was in charge and winning this wrestling match. The male elephant lying in the water made several attempts to get up but his brother refused to let him go. The struggling elephant became annoyed and started to cry out these deep and loud screams every time he couldn’t get up. The loud screams were so loud that it left us feeling extremely overwhelmed and intimidated. Eventually the screaming elephant managed to shrug off his brother and got back onto his feet. The elephant looked pretty mad and it was then when the other elephant realized that he better get some distance between the two of them otherwise there was going to be trouble. In the end, the frustrated elephant bull handled the situation surprisingly well, looking all calmed down a lot quicker than we anticipated. Everyone really thought he would get up and give his brother some of his own medicine but to our surprise, it didn't happen. As if nothing happened, the brothers left the water together in peace.