This is the nail-biting moment an eight-year-old elephant manages beat off a savage attack by 14 hungry lionesses.
The near-three minute fight – captured on film by safari-goers in the South Luangwa National Park, Zambia – shows the feisty herbivore surrounded by predators near a watering hole.
As the lions viciously set about the tusked mammal – who was separated from its herd – they begin taking it in turns to leap on its back and sink their teeth into its body.
Jesse Nash, a New York-based journalist who witnessed the event, told MailOnline that he was desperate to go and help but knew that would be ‘breaking the rules of nature.’ ‘We were on safari as observers, witnessing a cycle of life that is, at times, very cruel,’ he added.
In the video, Nash and other bystanders – including Long Island University art professor Dan Christoffel, British naturalist Steve Baker and Australian travel writer Nina Karnikowski – are heard encouraging the the elephant to ‘Go on fight back!’
In a bid to shrug off its attackers, the quick-thinking elephant darts into the water. However, the lions don’t seem too fazed by the wet and several of them bound into the shallow depths.
‘They know he’s struggling to stand up, they’re not going to give up. Where are the other elephants, for God’s sake?’ one worried voice can be heard shouting in the background as the fight intensifies.
But after a lengthy battle, the elephant beats the odds and escapes unscathed.
It is seen triumphantly flapping its ears, trumpeting and splashing through the water. The lions apparently left the scene and found a buffalo for dinner instead.
The group who watched the fray were mid-tour with the Chinzombo Camp Norman Carr Safari company.
Their guide, Innocent, who was driving the Jeep, said of the incident: ‘In many years I have been a safari guide in Zambia at the South Luangwa, never have I seen anything like this.
‘We were all so worried the elephant would be killed right before us. What a fighter. It fought off all 14 lions – incredible.’
The elephant was reunited with its 60-strong herd the next day. It has earned the nickname Hercules for its bravery on the battlefield.