Baby Elephant Spotted In The Wild Without A Trunk

In footage filmed at Kruger National Park, the youngster can be seen amongst a number of other elephants, walking around with most of its trunk missing.

Safari workers don't know how the elephant lost its trunk, but that it was possibly due to an attack from a predator, such as a lion or crocodile - both animals have been known to attack baby elephants. There's also a chance it could have been caught in snare.

The man who filmed the clip said: "Crocodiles grabbing baby elephants by their trunks while drinking water have been recorded in Kruger before and this was the most likely reason for this baby elephant losing its crucially important body part.

"An individual can simply not survive without its trunk. Elephants use their trunks to feed, drink water and smell.

"Unfortunately, the future for this poor little one looked very bleak."

Workers are now worried for the poor elephant's survival, as the animals use their trunks for eating, drinking, cleaning, social interactions and for fighting off potential predators, making life without one very hard.

According to staff at the park, losing a trunk is one of the most life-threatening things that can happen to an elephant, as a fully-grown elephant needs around 190 litres of water and between 90kg-220kg of food every day. This is where its trunk becomes invaluable as without one elephants would struggle to get that much down them.

The trunk is also used for bonding with other elephants, so by not having one there's a risk that it will become alienated from the herd and leave itself even more vulnerable to attacks from predators.

If this happened the animal would be dealing with the dual problem of having no back-up from its herd-mates and having to fight off predators without the use of its strong trunk.