Elephant resembles world's tallest animal as he reaches for food in tree

Corlette Wessels, who took the snaps in Zimbabwe, said: "It was great to see and nice knowing the elephant could be resourceful looking for food"

Identity crisis? This elephant looks like he thinks he's a giraffe as he reaches for food

When it comes to reaching food high up in trees, giraffes have it down.

And this elephant clearly realises that, too - because he's been snapped taking a leaf out of the world's tallest species by stretching to reach pods at the top of a tree.

The hilarious pictures show the playful elephant standing upright on his hind legs with its trunk at full stretch reaching out for the pods above.

Corlette Wessels, 42, from Johannesburg, South Africa took the snaps at Mana Pools, Zimbabwe, and was stunned to see the hungry elephant playfully finding his food.

High times: The elephant stands on his hind legs to reach the pods at the top of the treeThe mother-of-two said: "It was amazing to see such a majestic animal find such a resourceful way of finding food."Elephants do this sometimes to get to the pods high up in the trees."Most of the pods had been eaten by other smaller elephants so this one had to get to the plants right at the very top."I've never seen anything like it before. I've seen similar in print and on TV but never in real life."

Size is irrelephant: The animal is certainly resourceful when it comes to finding foodPhotographer Corlette, who runs a retail business, said: "I'm not sure whether the elephant was copying a giraffe or not but it did look like one."It was stretching out and reaching for food at the top but there aren't any giraffes at Mana Pools so I couldn't say if it was copying a giraffe."It was great to see and nice knowing the elephant could be resourceful looking for food."