A baby elephant narrowly escaped a terrifying fate when a crocodile lunged out of the water and clamped down on its trunk as it drank from a watering hole in the African bush.
The dramatic moment took place at Mana Pools in Zimbabwe’s Zambezi Valley, where photographer and farmer Francois Borman happened to be watching with his camera ready. “This was the last thing I expected to see,” he said. “I’d been out in the wild for hours, hoping for something exciting—and then this happened.”
As the young calf played near the deeper end of the waterhole, the crocodile had been silently sizing up the herd. Seizing its moment, it burst from the water and snapped its jaws around the baby elephant’s trunk.
With a panicked cry, the calf struggled to free itself. The rest of the herd stood frozen in shock for a moment, then erupted in alarm—snorting, trumpeting, and rushing to defend the vulnerable youngster.
With a fierce combination of instinct and help from its mother, the baby managed to wrestle free, yanking the crocodile partway out of the water before tumbling backward to safety. The crocodile, overwhelmed, slunk back into the murky depths.
The calf had been playfully splashing in the shallows, still learning how to use its trunk. Just moments before the attack, it had knelt down to drink awkwardly with its lips. Unaware of the lurking danger, the innocent moment turned into a life-or-death struggle in an instant.
Borman captured the entire encounter in stunning detail. “When I looked through my shots, I knew immediately they were something special. Wildlife photography is about patience—and this was the kind of moment you hope for.”
The heart-stopping images now serve as a powerful reminder of the wild’s unpredictability and the strength of maternal protection.
