Elephant Uproots Massive Tree With Its Trunk - Here's The Eye-opening Reason Why

A video that surfaced online fairly recently has once again managed to highlight the important role elephants play when it comes to the preservation of their ecosystem. At first, it may seem like pure destruction to humans, but that's where we'd be wrong. The behaviour exhibited in this viral video is centuries-old believe it or not. Here's all you need to know.

What does the viral video show?

The now-viral clip shows an adult tusker barging into a massive tree, repeatedly but with patience | Image: Instagram

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The now-viral clip shows an adult tusker barging into a massive tree, repeatedly but with patience. It's clear to anyone watching the clip that the gentle giant's intention is to bring the seemingly healthy tree down. After several attempts, the elephant manages to do what it had set out to do. The tree falls to the ground and the elephant walks over to inspect the tree. Once done, it walks away. But before you jump to conclusions, these animals have been doing this since even before humans walked the earth, and there's a very important reason why.

Why do elephants bring trees down like this?

The behaviour exhibited in this viral video is centuries-old believe it or not | Image: Instagram

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Here's a comment from one Instagram user, to put things into perspective: "The lack of intelligence by humans in this post is mind boggling¡­the elephants have been doing this long before we were around. That tree most likely has rot in the middle. The elephants are managing their own ecosystem. In 20 years a single seed will be a tree that size. We destroy land and pollute it with buildings roads and city¡¯s. Then some people pretend to be activists when they are guilty of far greater destruction."

Elephants are known to maintain their ecosystem on their own, and without them, even new species of trees wouldn't be around. Like in the video, the elephant, upon sensing that the tree was rotting from the middle, decided to bring it down.

"Elephants play a significant role in shaping the environment around them. Many are quick to highlight this as destruction but that could be shortsighted. We often assume that the bush we see around us today is what it¡¯s always looked like. This is not the case. Certain trees were once plentiful here 150 years ago and now are gone. Others tree species that currently dominate the landscape were almost nonexistent back then. Change is natural. Indeed it is inevitable. But we must also keep in mind that elephants have significantly less space to roam in now than they did in previous centuries," explained the caption accompanying the video shared by 'malamalagamereserve' on Instagram.

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"Even if all the elephants in the world drop one tree per day they still cannot match the speed at which we humans destroy nature," wrote one user. " No machinery needed," chimed in a second. " The elephant keeps the savanna from turning into a forest, while forest is important, other types of habitats also equally critical for mosaic ecosystem," added a third. There were also naysayers who disagreed with the given explanation. "I don¡¯t buy the explanation at all. Trees are good for our ecosystem and preserves the environment. The Elephant is just destructive. Who will replant that tree for elephants to eat their leaves in future?" was a person's comment.

Watch the video below

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A post shared by MalaMala Game Reserve (@malamalagamereserve)

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