Images show a brave mother elephant charging towards 2 lionesses who successfully pinned down her calf in order to save her baby from being eaten.

The incident reportedly happened at the Mana Pools National Park in Zimbabwe last month.

The images were captured by Kevin Dooley, a wildlife photographer, and it showed a calf being pinned down by 2 lionesses.

Kevin said the lionesses were hunting a warthog when the baby elephant showed up in front of them.

Dooley said the elephant calf started to chase the warthog after spotting it, and was totally unaware of the lionesses lurking nearby.

The lionesses saw the elephant and pinned the elephant down in a matter of minutes, and were trying to kill it.

Kevin said one of the lionesses was pregnant and was “badly in need of food”.

A warthog could have been eaten by the lions in just a couple of hours, but a baby elephant could have fed them for a number of days.

Kevin explained, “Elephants are a very difficult animal for lions to kill and normally the lions will have had to grow up in a pride that specializes in killing elephants, otherwise they will avoid them and go for smaller and less dangerous prey. The lions took the elephant down with ease, both leaped on to the elephant’s back and forced it to the ground, after which they applied all their weight and began to immobilize the elephant.”

The baby elephant started to scream in pain and within a few minutes, the sibling of the elephant showed up and tried to save him.

The older sibling tried to save his younger sibling, but failed and ended up running away in fear.

But little did the lions know about the mother elephant lurking near the area.

Kevin said, “Soon the mother elephant showed up and in all her anger and power she charged at the lions that were aggressively trying to kill the young elephant calf.”

He added, “One of the lionesses quickly retreated and the mother elephant screamed in anger and threw dust into the air. The second lioness held tight and growled and snarled at the mother elephant. However the elephant did not retreat and eventually the lion gave up. The lion knew that she was no match for an angry adult elephant.”

After the lions started to retreat, the mother elephant raised her baby up by using her trunk. She smelled the baby, checked her over, and waited for her herd to come to them.

The lions, in shock and scared, ran into the bushes close by.

After the herd came, they charged the bushes in order to scare the lions off.

Kevin said the entire herd had around 7 elephants.

Talking about what he captured on cam, Kevin said, “I knew I had a once in a lifetime event taking place in front of me, I was very busy just trying to get the photographs.”

He added, “At first, before the mother arrived, I was somewhat sad, but understood the lions must eat. Once I saw the mother elephant charging the lions I knew they did not have a chance.”

That’s Mother Nature folks!