The scene was captured by amateur photographer Johan Opperman
while taking pictures of a family of African bush elephants grazing
by a water hole and cooling down.
Under the watchful eye of its family, the young elephant headed
to the edge of the waterhole to grab a drink.
However, a crocodile pounced on the youngster, hoping for a kill
by locking its jaws around its trunk.
Hearing the baby's distress calls, the herd of elephants scared
off the reptile by trumpeting and stamping around.
After the attack the herd stayed with the youngster.
Once the herd decided all was well, they crossed the dam
together, just metres from where the crocodile had been hiding.
Mr Opperman, from Pretoria, in South Africa, captured the
incredible moment while on a day trip in the country's Kruger
National Park.
The 38 year-old said: "The elephants were just grazing in the
area, drinking water and cooling down - typical elephant
behaviour.
"The crocodile grabbed the baby elephant and made an attempted
kill - it was hoping for a nice lunch with elephant on the
menu.
"From a couple of experts, I've heard that this is however very
rare, and that crocodiles do not normally try to catch
elephants.
"When the crocodile got hold of the baby elephant, the whole
herd of elephants first went crazy, running around and trumpeting,
and then proceeded to come to the rescue of the baby elephant.
"After it was saved, all the elephants of the herd stayed around
the baby elephant for a while, making sure that it was okay.
"The ones coming to the rescue were most probably female,
especially the matriarch female.
"I did not realise exactly what I managed to catch on film until
I got to my holiday resort that night and looked through the photos
on my computer.
"The screen on digital cameras is not the greatest and made it
hard to see the details of what was captured.
"When the 'action' started, I just started clicking away in
typical amateur fashion, hoping to get at least something.
"It was quite a surprise to later see on the larger computer
monitor that I actually managed to get one photo of the crocodile
pulling on the elephant."