Battle of the beasts: Elephant has face-off with an angry hippo

It was a battle of the giants when a hippo had a face-off with an elephant in Botswana.

The elephant had invaded the hippopotamus' territory on the Chobe River in Botswana and the angry hippo seemed keen to make its feelings quite clear.

The heavyweight encounter was captured by Nicole Cambre, a 43-year-old lawyer and keen photographer from Brussels.

Her pictures show the elephant proudly standing on an island in the river, while the submerged hippo approaches through the water.

When the hippo gets onto the island it does its best to intimidate the unwelcome guest by widening its jaws and bearing teeth.

The elephant lowers its head but the battle is over before it has begun as more elephants arrive and the hippo backs off.

Nicole told Rex Features: "There is an island on the middle of the Chobe River to which this elephant had crossed. The hippo was not happy about it and was apparently defending its territory. When more elephants crossed the river to the island the hippo backed off and went back into the river."

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