[imagesource:wonderai]

Good luck to you if you ever happen to come across an elephant bull in musth.

Musth is a condition marked by heightened aggression and unpredictable behaviour that usually occurs in male elephants annually in association with a surge in testosterone levels.

While leading a safari tour through Welgevonden Game Reserve in Limpopo, Christiaan Swanepoel was suddenly faced with a massive male elephant dealing with this intense hormonal surge.

Intense footage shows the 25-year-old guide trying to carefully reverse away from the five-tonne elephant as it bats its giant ears, wacks a tree in half without much effort, and runs head-first at his guests.

Per Newsflare, Christiaan said that the bull was just trying to assert dominance, adding that musth often means an elephant’s testosterone can be about 40-50 times higher than normal.

“When you have that much testosterone in an animal that weighs more than five tonnes, it is a tense time,” he said. “I have been a guide for five years and this has happened before to me but it’s always nerve-wracking as every situation can be different. You have to stand your ground while also giving the elephant enough space to try and defuse the situation.”

“Fortunately I was able to reverse away from the bull before speeding away to safety”, he assured.

Despite seeming to lose interest in Christiaan at one point – who spoke to the raging bull like it was a petulant teenager in an effort to get it to back off – the giant creature managed to whip a tree in half with ease while chasing them all the way to another road where they finally managed to speed away to safety.

That could have been a whole other story if Christiaan wasn’t so cool, calm and collected. Although, he really should have gotten out of there faster.

[source:newsflare]