Fearless Jack Russell Chases Big Bull Elephant Out Of Safari Camp

Jack Russell Terriers are well known to be intensely energetic dogs. This video shows when a fearless attitude is combined with all that energy, you get a jack russell that does not hesitate for one second to show a big and dangerous elephant bull who is the boss of the camp.

Botswana is host to the world’s largest elephant population and encounters between man and the largest mammal on this planet is not uncommon. There are no fences around any reserves in the country and elephants can move freely as they like. When you stay in a wilderness safari camp, there are no fences around the camp either, and the tents are exposed to the wild as it is. While elephant herds normally do not cause too much trouble, it is usually the old big lone elephant bulls that can become troublesome and encounters with humans can be very dangerous.

Elephants also freely move through camps and sometimes they will feed around the tents peacefully. It is on the odd occasion that you might have an angry and grumpy old elephant bull that likes to charge anything that moves or that comes in his way. This behaviour is usually caused by a period of musth which older male elephants go into when they are ready to mate. That means an overdrive of testosterone and hormones for the big bulls which makes them extremely dangerous. The video shows one of those bulls that came into a safari camp in a remote area of Botswana.

The bull elephant looked like he was not in camp for casual feeding. As soon as the bull elephant saw movement of people between the tents, it started showing some intimidating behaviour, mock charging towards the tents while kicking sand and throwing dust around with his trunk. Some people banged on the tables to try scare the elephant away but this big bull was in no hurry to leave. Suddenly out of nowhere, a jack russell comes bursting through, charging straight at the elephant bull while barking. The bull elephant stared down at the charging and barking dog with his ears raised. Instead of charging towards the dog, which is ten times smaller, the bull elephant got a big freight and turned around and ran off.

The feisty jack russell chased after the elephant for a few more meters before she had enough and turned around, casually walking back, looking really impressed with herself. The elephant then stopped, looking back all confused by what just happened. The elephant then decided it was better to move on and ran out of the camp. What an amazing show of self-confidence and fearlessness by the jack russell.