Elephants vs Rhinos

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Recently footage of an African bush elephant and white rhinoceros getting into a skirmish has made the rounds on social media. So I decided to create a thread devoted to such encounters. Even if actual physical contact fights are pretty one-sided, dominance displays where one species is driven off will also count.

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A rare instance where a rhino actually gets into position to attack an elephant. Both were males, and the elephant failed to avoid the charge. However, the researchers failed to see if this resulted in injuries or not, rather frustratingly.



zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-1795.1998.tb00223.x

[tyrannasorus]

Elephant attacking a rhino while the calf gets stuck between them

packaged-media.redd.it/85l0cs6ddt671/pb/m2-res_720p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1688220000&s=4d9b7ed23256dd85a418de741107a8e211c60070#t=0

a bull attacks a lone rhino



This is a confrontation rather than a fight


Elephant chases off a rhino


I can't find the video where a Black rhino manages to hold off an elephant, it managed to gore the trunk and that got the elephant to back off.

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There is, of course, this.

We describe white rhinoceros (Ceratotherium simum) mortality at Pilanesberg National Park, South Africa, focussing on mortality caused by African elephant (Loxodonta africana). We reconstructed records from a range of historical sources, and estimated that up to 49 rhino were killed by elephant. There was confirmed mortality in 1994 and 1996, and based on patterns, we suggest a set of rhino mortality from elephant in 1992. Both sexes and all age classes were victims. There was no significant bias to older animals, but given the rhino population structure, there was a significant bias towards males in adult deaths. The culprits were identified as young male elephants that entered musth about 10 years younger than expected, and maintained musth for a full term at first occurrence. We attributed this to the lack of a mature bull hierarchy in the park, because these elephants were the product of translocation of young animals (<10 years old) remaining from culls in Kruger National Park. We emphasise the need for accurate monitoring and record keeping, and a focus on individual identification of key species in small reserves.

To put this into perspective, this paper mentions that the most common cause of death in "normal" white rhinoceros populations was intraspecific combat (between males), getting stuck in mud, and drought. This is true for Pilanesberg as well under "normal" circumstances. 

koedoe.co.za/index.php/koedoe/article/view/188


It is worth noting that these delinquent males were larger than any females, which allowed their rhinoceros-killing spree to go unchecked prior to the introduction of older males. It also means that despite not being fully grown, they were still much larger than the adult rhinos that they killed. Adult female African bush elephants average 2.6-3.5 tonnes (Larramendi, 2015), so these delinquents must have been at least >3.5 tonnes in mass.

As the young males went through puberty, they became virtual juvenile delinquents. Unfettered by parental discipline, or by any dominance from mature bulls, they began to run riot when their hormones started to kick into high gear. By the time they reached 18 or 20 years of age, they were larger than any females, and so were no longer under any sort of control.

books.google.com/books?id=iEBn0q7vLhEC&pg=PA319&dq=delinquent+male+elephants+larger+than+any+female&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi6kZCp-YP0AhWPpnIEHapnCA4Q6AF6BAgLEAI#v=onepage&q=delinquent%20male%20elephants%20larger%20than%20any%20female&f=false

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Jul 1, 2023 5:03:43 GMT 5 Infinity Blade said:

A rare instance where a rhino actually gets into position to attack an elephant. Both were males, and the elephant failed to avoid the charge. However, the researchers failed to see if this resulted in injuries or not, rather frustratingly.



zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1469-1795.1998.tb00223.x

So I looked further into this study. It turns out body size alone doesn't determine dominance; elephants still dominated 71% of encounters, but sex played a huge role in dominance. Female elephants dominated both sexes of black rhino. Male rhinos, but not females, displaced elephant bulls.




I also just realized that as far as elephant-rhino interactions go, this study only looked at interactions between bush elephants (Loxodonta africana) and black rhinos (Diceros bicornis). This means the rhino that charged the elephant above and made contact was a black rhino, and realistically was a sixth of the elephant's body mass. It was ballsier than I thought.

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A black rhino makes a herd of elephants uncomfortable at a watering hole. It chases off a young male. Source->.

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This white rhino was gored by an elephant and had to receive veterinary care (link->).



From 1991-2001, 58 white and 8 black rhinos were killed by elephants in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park. As with the similar Pilanesberg National Park episode, the culprits were primarily young male elephants entering musth earlier than normal due to the absence of adult males (Slotow et al., 2001).

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An aggressive Indian rhino charges an Asian elephant with a rider in Chitwan National Park.

[Supercommunist]

I thought Indian rhinos primarily fought by biting.

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Apr 24, 2024 8:10:10 GMT 5 Supercommunist said:

I thought Indian rhinos primarily fought by biting.

They definitely do, although some old accounts suggest that the horn can also be a secondary weapon of sorts (and I know of one incident where an Indian rhino straight up gored a man with its horn). Even if it's a less viable weapon against large animals (like other rhinos or elephants), I suppose it could still kinda strike an animal with its head without doing any real damage like it did in that video.