Elephant goes on destructive rampage, completely destroys vehicle

It was straight after the travel restrictions were lifted in South Africa that we decided to go on a two-week break to a remote wilderness reserve, located on the Zambezi River in Zambia. It was a five-day journey to our destination. We were looking forward to a week of wild camping among the wildlife of Zambia which was always going to be a thrilling experience. And so, it turned out to be.

Camping in an unfenced area anywhere in the African wild is a thrilling experience but at the same time, while on holiday, you can never let your guard down a hundred percent. While relaxing, one has to stay vigilant at the same time. It was a soon as day two of our camping expedition that we got reminded how dangerous wild animals can be, large elephant bulls in specific. While enjoying a late morning brunch at our campsite, I suddenly heard loud metal banging noises coming from the one side of the camp terrain. The noises continued and I decided to go and investigate. In the distance I saw a few local staff members gathered near the entrance of the camp terrain. I couldn’t believe what I saw and pulled out my phone to start filming.

The metal noises I’ve heard was made by a massive elephant bull that was busy on a rampage, destroying another holidaymaker’s vehicle trailer. The elephant looked like it had serious issues with the white trailer. When I arrived, the trailer was already badly beaten up but the destruction continued. The big bull elephant would trample on the trailer, throw it over, trample it again and throw it over again like it was a piece of lightweight plastic. The local staff made an attempt at clapping their hands at the irate elephant bull, but to no avail. The elephant couldn’t care less and continued bashing up the trailer.

Only until the very end, the reason for the elephant bull’s behaviour became all too apparent when he opened the front compartment of the trailer and shoved something into his mouth. This elephant bull was not so much angry with the trailer itself, but was adamantly after a bag of maize meal that was stashed in the front compartment of the trailer. The elephant clearly smelled the maize meal inside the trailer and made every effort to get to it. The owner of the trailer was out on safari for the day and we couldn’t do much more either but to watch the elephant bull gobble up the bags of maze meal. The trailer was also a total write off of course.