One baby elephant is “causing chaos in the herd,” and we can’t get enough. Wildlife photograhper @matthewwilliamselliss posted an amazing video of a group of elephants, including a sweet baby who was living his best life.

The caption explained, “Love the part when the baby elephant charges an elephant twice its size! Filming and photographing elephants is always an amazing experience. Add a baby into the mix, and you will have a grin from ear to ear. They just seem to have such excitement for life, taking joy in head butting elephants that tower over them, and just generally getting to know the world around them.”

We get to see multiple clips of both baby and mama (as well as others). The little guy loves to run around and did not have any fear as he approached the camera. Of course, viewers adored the young’un with @Kait summing it up nicely, “He’s just so gigantically tiny.” Somehow that makes perfect sense. @user6221376725615 added, “Incredible to see these beautiful creatures!” They really are majestic.

Others, like @janethayes411, focused on tiny’s antics with, “He was showing off for the camera! I hear ‘look what I can do!'” Luckily, he nailed it. Finally, many viewers expressed a profound love of elephants and found the interaction humbling, including @cindyshaven who noted, “What a precious moment to be able to experience.”

Related: Teeny-Tiny Baby Elephant Emerging From Herd on Safari Video Has People Obsessed

Why do baby elephants play?

For many animals (us included), play represents a key piece of development. Young elephants, like human children and puppies, need to learn crucial skills to make it in adulthood. Lots of social creatures develop these abilities through play as youngsters. “Play behaviors evolved as ritualized forms of survival skills needed later in life, providing the opportunity to perfect those skills,” writes Caitlin O’Connell for Scientific American.

These behaviors allow the immature beastie to practice life skills, find limits, and discover new things. To sum up, it’s both cute and necessary for this little guy to try out charging at bigger elephants — he’ll need to know how to interact someday when he’s an adult.

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This story was originally reported by PetHelpful on Nov 22, 2025, where it first appeared in the Pet News section. Add PetHelpful as a Preferred Source by clicking here.