iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Video taken at a safari park in Mexico shows a rhinoceros ramming an SUV several times with a family inside.
The incident, which occurred Monday at the Africam Safari in Puebla, Mexico, begins as the rhinoceros slams its head into the driver’s side door as three park employees monitor nearby.
The rhinoceros then moves to the back of the SUV, placing its head under the rear bumper and lifting the vehicle off the ground.
As the vehicle attempts to drive away, the rhinoceros follows close by, continuing to lift it off the dirt road multiple times as it moves.
The rhinoceros maintained contact with the SUV for several seconds as it drove away, and the three park workers ran after them.
The rhinoceros attacked the car after a female rhinoceros in heat grabbed his attention, Africam parks said in a statement. The male rhinoceros has been separated until the female is no longer in heat, the park said.
The incident is an “isolated case,” and the park will continue to work to ensure the welfare and safety of its animals and visitors, it said.
“The necessary measures were taken immediately so that this does not happen again,” the statement read.
The family who was in the SUV said they felt “strong emotions” during the rhinoceros’s surprise display of aggression, but it ended up being “a good experience that they will never forget,” the park said.
The SUV was dented as a result of the attack, the park said.
Africam Safari, located about 90 miles southeast of Mexico City, boasts more than 350 species of animals and allows visitors to tour by drive their own cars onto the property.
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