Video shows insane reality of fight between elephant and honey badger despite it being tiny in comparison

An unexpected battle between a honey badger and a full-sized elephant has left a group of Hwange National Park visitors with minds of the melted variety.

Captured on video, this epically disproportionate meeting of species displays exactly why you can never judge a book by its cover.

The two animals encountered each other at Sable Valley in Zimbabwe on Saturday (September 6), with the Amalinda Safari Collection posting the footage on Instagram the day after.

"This sighting left us questioning 'who really is king of the jungle?'" read part of the caption.

As you can see in the recording, the elephant was minding its own business by the watering hole before the typically aggressive badger paces towards it.

The bull stands its ground, but this most miniature of enemies only speeds up, eventually managing to bite the elephant's back ankle.

For its troubles, the badger is stomped on as the BFG trumpets wildly in pain and catches it with a big hoof.

Safely distanced from the scene, unseen British tourists are heard laughing as the bizarre violence unfolds.

"Has he killed it?" asks one bloke, as a woman replies: "Yes, he stood on it."

Their attention then turns to the elephant, who appears to be limping slightly from the attack.

"They're so strong, they will recover," a safari guide can be heard pointing out from behind the wheel.

Incredibly, after some time regathering its strength, the badger heads directly for the elephant once again.

This time it's curtains though, with the largest living land animal making sure to finish the job; whacking the badger several times with its foot in a cloud of dust like it was a mere football.

"Aren't they extraordinary? Look at this, and it's still going!" marvels one of the tourists while the attacker continues to bare its teeth under the circumstances.

Over on Reddit, viewers of the video weighed in with their own astonished reactions.

"Videos like this make one question how in the hell these little psychos have avoided extinction," wrote one of them.

"I have never seen an elephant fight something so tiny.. the precision with those kicks is really amazing. Like slow-mo but so much power. And lol at honey badgers.. they are cute little things. Angry," read another comment.

"I think they've basically evolved to use 'best defense is a good offense' strategy which confuses predators and makes them think twice about the cost-benefit analysis. I imagine that it means they simply don't feel as much fear as we do, but that can be taken too far as we see here. Because in this case it's just pure no-win insanity," suggested a third user.

"The elephant was really trying so hard to restrain himself from harming it but the honey badger was just asking for it," commented somebody else.