What Other Animals Can Kill Elephants?Ī big reason why lions can hunt and kill elephants is the fact that they hunt together in groups but even then, hunting elephants is an extremely dangerous thing to do for lions.Įven though it is very dangerous for lions to hunt elephants, some predators that are significantly smaller than lions may actually also try their luck on rare occasions. Lions and humans are not the only natural enemies for elephants.
Poachers often seek out and kill elephants to take their tusks and according to WWF, tens of thousands of elephants are killed by poachers every year.Īnother enormous threat towards elephants is the loss of habitat caused by humans in the form of city expansion, agriculture projects, or other man-made construction. While lions can definitely pose a threat to elephants, the most dangerous natural enemy for elephants by far is humans. Lions will almost always avoid attacking elephants from the front to avoid their trunks and their deadly tusks. When lions attack elephants, they will almost always attack the elephant from the back or the sides or by jumping onto its back. Lions will almost always go after young, very old, or otherwise weak elephants when they hunt as they are not able to defend themselves and cause as much trouble and potential damage to the lions as a stronger elephant would be able to. When a pride of lions is hunting elephants, they will try to separate one of them from the rest of their herd, or otherwise find an isolated elephant as it is much too dangerous to just attack an entire herd of elephants.
#Lion elephant predators skin#
Lions do actually not hunt elephants very often since elephants usually are extremely dangerous for them to hunt due to their massive size and strength and their thick skin which is hard to penetrate even with the sharp claws and teeth, lions have. On rare occasions, a very large and strong male lion can take down a young and small elephant calf on its own. When lions hunt together, they can hunt and kill animals that are upwards of 10 times larger than themselves including elephant calves, young males, and even fully grown female elephants. The largest male lions can weigh well over 500 pounds (227 kg) and when they hunt together, they are capable of taking down very large mammals.įemale lions can, however, definitely also pose a threat to elephants since they also usually hunt together and therefore have the ability to overpower very large animals. What Are The Primary Natural Enemies Of Elephants?įully grown male elephants generally do not have any natural enemies other than humans due to their massive size and strength.įemale elephants, young elephants, calves, and very old, or otherwise weak elephants are at risk of being hunted by several predators but their most dangerous natural enemies are lions and humans.Įspecially male lions pose a threat to elephants since they are much larger than female lions. In this post, I have covered exactly how these animals can pose such a big threat to African elephants.
Fully grown male elephants are generally too large but females and especially younger elephants are at risk of being killed by predators.
Lions and humans are the primary natural enemies of African elephants but hyenas, African wild dogs, and crocodiles can also pose a threat to elephant calves. African elephants are the largest land-living animals in the world so it is natural to think that they have no natural enemies and many sources, especially online, claim so too but the truth is that elephants have several natural enemies.
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