Watch what happens when angry elephant charges a VW

Wild animals regularly pose a threat to drivers. Here in Michigan, we worry about deer. In Colorado, the animals are a bit bigger (your author once saw a dead mountain lion on the side of the road outside of Telluride). Sweden, meanwhile, has to deal with moose. South Africa, though, trumps just about everywhere else, because occasionally drivers will need to contend with elephants.

Don't be confused by this video; adorable pachyderms aren't simply wandering major highways. This is a video from inside Kruger National Park in northwest South Africa, showing a bull elephant facing down what we think is a Volkswagen Golf, before ramming and goring the hatchback with its tusks. The British couple at the wheel suffered some injuries during the attack, although none were life threatening and both driver and passenger are out of the hospital.

According to The Independent, the park's general manager, William Mabasa, said the couple's instinct "to stay quiet and still," was not incorrect, although he did point out the situation could have been avoided. "It's a big animal," Mabasa said. "There's no need to get close."

In the elephant's defense, it looks like it gave the Golf plenty of opportunities to back up and escape before it turned its tusks on the German hatchback. Mabasa said the animal was in the midst of a "musth," which can raise testosterone levels 60 times above normal, which may have contributed to the aggressive behavior. The animal was put down following the incident.

Scroll down for the video, and be warned, although most of the video is spoken in a mix of English and Afrikaans, there is some foul language.

UPDATE: The originally linked video has been taken down. We found another, which is available below.