Elephants start trunk-wrestling match to see who is the strongest

Boys will be boys, a saying not only applicable in the human world but also very true in the world of elephants. The video shows how two young, playful elephant brothers are just being boys when they start a trunk wrestling match, testing each other’s strength.Show more

Watching elephants during an African safari is always a great experience. These intelligent giants can display an incredible number of different behaviours at any given time, making them rather unpredictable sometimes. Spending some time just to watch a herd of elephants going about their daily business can be rewarding and many times very entertaining. It was during a recent safari in the Kruger National Park that we came across a large herd of elephants. There was a good number of young elephants in the breeding herd. With so many youngsters around we decided it could only be entertaining to stay and watch for a while. It was not long before my attention was drawn to three young bull elephants standing together. I realised they were sizing each other up and it was not long before two of the young male elephants decided to start a trunk-wrestling match. From a young age, even-sized elephant bulls will engage in such trunk-wrestling contests to start establishing dominance. These contests never turn violent and will mostly consist of pushing and shoving each other around until one decides to give in and walk away.

Like two typical young boys, the elephant brothers started pushing and shoving each other around using their trunks. It was so amusing to watch how these two young elephant brothers locked their trunks during the interaction. As real boxers will do in a fight, the two young elephants took a few pauses in between every now and then to catch their breath before they would continue wrestling. The two playful elephant males continued pushing each other around with no clear winner standing out. Suddenly the one young brother elephant decided he had enough and pulled out of the contest. The other elephant brother triumphantly raised his trunk in the air, claiming the win. We left the herd with smiles on our faces and highly satisfied with the entertainment provided by the two young elephant brothers.