I was going to use the phrase “the bark is worse than the bite,” but as far as I know, rhinos don’t bark.
You know what I’m trying to say though…
This baby rhino is clearly in a little over its head trying to scare off this wildebeest. Even the larger wildebeest is a little confused when the smaller rhino runs up to it and tries to scare it.
In the video, a baby rhino and its mother are chowing down on some grass when the youngling decided that it wanted to be like its mom. I’m guessing the small thing had watched its parent do something like this a time or two and wanted to give it a try.
When the clip starts, the small rhinoceros was trotting its way over to the wildebeest, who was also just trying to snack on the native grass. You can tell that when the rhino finally makes its way over to the horned animal, the wildebeest is thinking:
“Is this really happening?”
The baby rhino tests its limits and quickly hops up the wildebeest, having the time of its life as it tries to intimidate the other animal. However, the wildebeest isn’t backing down, and lowers its head down to the baby rhino, causing it to suddenly lose the confidence it started with.
As the small rhinoceros retreats, the wildebeest stops moving towards it, which gives the young rhino a “second wind” of false courage as it begins bouncing up and down again and moving towards the wildebeest.
At this point, its hard to tell if the wildebeest is actually a little taken back by the rhino or if its just humoring the young thing. Regardless, the baby rhinoceros manages to chase the wildebeest backwards and looks to be feeling pretty good about itself.
That’s when the wildebeest put its foot down (literally), and looked to be non-verbally saying “that’s enough.” The message was heard loud and clear by the baby rhino, who goes sprinting back to the safety of its mother.
Sure, the young rhinoceros probably took a bite that was too big to chew, but I’m sure it learned a valuable lesson if anything. One day when it grows up, it’ll be able to build off this interaction and really start enforcing itself in the animal kingdom.
And shoutout to the mother rhino for not being a “helicopter parent” and letting the young thing figure things out on its own.