Timber! Who needs a treefeller when there’s an elephant around?
Lingum Govender witnessed a mammoth elephant display incredible strength, when he pushed over a large tree with relative ease in front of game viewers.
This superlative sighting happened within seconds.
Large elephant positions itself alongside tree
Elephants don’t just appreciate trees for their leaves. When a tree falls, elephants can strip bark (especially valuable in dry seasons), dig up roots for moisture and minerals, or expose mineral-rich soil.
This behaviour helps them meet dietary needs for things like sodium, calcium and other nutrients.
It was for this reason, this giant elephant positioned its tusks on either side of a large tree’s trunk, and began to push against the tree.
For those unfamiliar with an elephant’s strength, this act might have initially seemed futile. However, elephants actually have incredible strength and are known to push trees down and even pull them up by their roots. What Lingum witnessed was actually normal elephant behaviour rather than random destruction!
Elephants often push, shake, or lean their massive weight into trees to bring them down so they can reach food they can’t otherwise access.
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As huge herbivores, they need enormous amounts of vegetation every day, sometimes over 100kg, and toppling a tree lets them eat leaves, fruits, bark and even nutrient-rich inner layers that are normally out of reach high in the canopy.
Elephant begins to push against tree with brute force
With its tusks and trunk in position, the elephant began to push… and push… Surprisingly, the tree’s trunk seemed to break with relative ease. It split in two and the top half of the tree started to slant towards the ground.
There was a large nest attached to one of the branches of the tree, which was swept up with the action, and went down towards the ground with the rest of the foliage.
The elephant seemed oblivious to its brute strength and also the destruction it was causing. For this elephant, pushing down a tree was child’s play.
Tree falls to ground with just a stump remaining
The elephant continued to push until the treetop lay against the ground of the bushveld.
It had displayed its super-strength to game viewers and provided a sighting which won’t easily be forgotten.
The beautiful balance of nature
Elephants are often called ‘ecosystem engineers.’ By knocking over trees, they open dense woodland into savanna, allowing grasses to grow and creating habitat for grazing animals like zebra and antelope.
Studies in African savannas have even shown elephants are a major driver of tree loss patterns in some areas.
So when you see an elephant shaking a tree until it falls, it’s usually about survival, nutrition, social behaviour, or shaping the landscape; not just raw strength, although they definitely have plenty of that!
Next time you drive through the bushveld and see random tree stumps or branches scattered across the terrain, you will know who is responsible and perhaps have a little more respect for elephants and their brute strength.
