Survival of the fittest: Young elephant filmed fighting off pride of 14 lionesses

This is the moment an adolescent elephant made a dramatic escape by fighting off a pride of 14 hungry lionesses.

The battle, which was captured on film by tourists in the South Luangwa National Park, Zambia, shows the eight-year-old surrounded by the pack of predators near a watering hole.

As the lions viciously set about the youngster - who was separated from its herd - they begin taking it in turns to leap on its back and sink their teeth into its backside and legs.



But incredibly, the quick-thinking elephant darts into the water in a desperate bid to shrug off the lions.

And after a lengthy battle, the youngster beats the odds and escapes unscathed.

Tourists had been travelling from Norman Carr Safaris Chinzombo Camp when they stumbled across the battle at sunset.

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Safari guide, Innocent, who works for Norman Carr Safaris and was driving the Jeep, said: 'In (the) 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 group of tourists who witnessed the incredible sighting - Journalist Jesse Nash, Artist and Professor at CW Post College in New York, Dan Christoffel, UK Naturalist, Steve Baker, and Australian journalist, Nina Krakowski - have since named the elephant Hercules.