Dwarf Elephant Caught on Film, Bests Bigger Foe

Researchers in Sri Lanka's Uda Walawe National Park have documented and recorded on video not only a male dwarf Asian elephant but also that selfsame creature appearing to get the better of a much larger, full-sized male in a jousting session.

The plucky elephant -- dubbed the Walawe Dwarf by its observers -- was just 6.6 feet tall (2 meters) and represented the first confirmed evidence of dwarfism in an Asian elephant, BBC Earth reported. The research was led by Shermin de Silva, director of the Uda Walawe Elephant Research Project.

The elephant, whose shortened limbs are probably the result of a genetic mutation, was first seen in the park in 2012 and again in 2013 by de Silva and other research teams. In 2014, her team witnessed the encounter with the larger foe, documented in a paper published in BioMed Central last month.

The researchers did not see the culmination of the tussle between the large and small elephants, but in the video above, it's pretty clear that the dwarf did not seem at all intimidated.

What's more, the Walawe Dwarf was seen just two days later, resting, so it had not been harmed in the encounter. The special elephant is about 30 to 35 years old, an expert told BBC Earth.

From Discovery News