This video on YouTube shocked me and it's a clear testament to the fact that size matters in a standoff, but not all the time.
If an elephant and a rhino got into it and fought each other, is it fair? The answer to that question lies mainly in the numbers. African bush elephants are huge at 5,000 to 7,000 kgs and typically standing about 4 metres tall. In comparison to the rhino, a white rhino is quite a bit smaller than an elephant, weighing anywhere from 1,800 to 2,500 kgs but a lot faster because elephants can only charge at around 40 kms/hr, but a white rhino can reach speeds of up to 55 kms/hr when charging towards a threat. You could tell from the video the size difference and who dominated that standoff.
When you consider the speed, that is really scary for an elephant to see a rhino charge at it at over 1/3 the speed the elephant can run.
Not only are rhinos smaller but they also tend to live shorter lives than elephants. Elephants on average will live 60 to 70 years, but I would not think of it as a huge factor in a fight. What I do believe is the difference between a rhino and an elephant is their nature. Rhinos are very aggressive animals and usually charge first and never really second guess whether the enemy is stronger. With the elephants, they're emotional animals and have a higher level of intelligence than rhinos, but if a mother elephant has a calf or feels like she needs to defend herself from danger the emotional side of an elephant disappears. Again, both animals can kill if they’re attacked but it will not be in the same way.
In terms of size dominate versus speed, that’s almost irrelevant because both animals are going to be unstoppable because they both have their own ways of being unstoppable. Rhinos use their aggressiveness and elephants use their intelligence and physical size to win.
If they were to really fight, we can just assume that they would fight until one died, but in reality they do not fight that much in the wild. Both animals will just steer clear of each other. When two alphas are in a room, they have mutual respect.
But they can fight too.
