IMPOSSIBLE STORY: Young elephant gets a nasty surprise when a crocodile grabs his trunk at a water hole

This young elephant got more than he bargained for when he ambled up to a water hole to slake his thirst.

Just moments after dipping his trunk in the water, it was grabbed by a hungry crocodile.

But luckily for the elephant, the croc had bitten off considerably more than he could chew – and the astonished bull elephant was able to whip his trunk out of the reptile’s jaws with no more than a few cuts to remember the encounter by.

The young elephant doesn't appear to see the waiting crocodile as he ambles over to the peaceful watering hole in the South Luangwa National park in Zambia

The remarkable scene was captured by amateur wildlife photographer Ian Salisbury, 62, at the South Luangwa National park in Zambia. 

Mr Salisbury, general manager of a safari lodge, said: ‘One of our guests had seen a crocodile try a similar attack on another elephant earlier in the day so, camera in hand, I went to see if there might be a repeat performance.

‘The action was so quick – a couple of seconds – and fortunately I had the camera pointing in the right direction. Having spent 30 years in the African bush, I realise how lucky I was to catch the scene.’

SNAP! The crocodile grabs hold of the elephant's trunk, but it soon becomes clear that he has bitten off a lot more than he can chew by grabbing the huge beast

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The startled young elephant soon makes light work of escaping from the hungry crocodile's jaws, but by the startled look on it's face you can tell he had a shock

Mr Salisbury said the elephant ‘fled rapidly into the bush’ after the attack.

The incident has remarkable echoes of Rudyard Kipling’s children’s story, The Elephant’s Child, which tells how the animals got their trunks after a crocodile grabbed a baby elephant’s nose and kept pulling it.

In a scene reminiscent of the Rudyard Kipling story How The Elephant Got His Trunk, the startled mammal gives the sneaky crocodile a