Brave hikers stand their ground during close encounter with elephant

When a bull elephant comes charging at you, the natural reaction is to start running. These hikers at Kruger National Park in South Africa knew better though, and calmly stood their ground when the huge animal approached them with a roar. Their guide on the walking safari, Cornel Rademeyer, later said that if the hikers had backed off, the elephant may have followed through with its charge. The important thing was to stay calm and not make any sudden movements.

The reason for the elephant advancing on the group became evident when they were later told that one member of the group had tried to run down the river bank and another moved his position. The rangers were not aware of this during the encounter. In the clip, the elephant actually reacts to the people moving across and in front of the camera.

At that stage, it was important for the guides to concentrate on the potential threat and deter a situation. The elephant then backed up and moved off.

"We continued our walk after the excitement within the clients had returned to normal, I reiterated at this point to the clients on the importance of not moving or generating noise during such an encounter such as had occurred," the guide later wrote on YouTube.

The elephant was not provoked or harmed in any way.

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