Baby Elephant Learns To Charge, Wins The Internet

<p> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zWSgkM7gu0">YouTube/Zambezi</a> </p>
<p> <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zWSgkM7gu0">YouTube/Zambezi</a> </p>

Baby elephants have always been in the running for cutest animal on Earth, but this young calf might have just taken the title.

While on a safari drive in Zambia, a group of tourists caught sight of a baby elephant learning the ropes. As his herd grazed peacefully, he worked on his his grown-up face and bravely raised his ears to the interlopers, defending his tribe.

YouTube/Zambezi

He stood his ground ... well, at least for a moment.

YouTube/Zambezi

See the entire adorable encounter, captured by Zambezi safari company:

click to play video

It's worth mentioning that not every interaction between humans and elephants ends so happily. Poaching for ivory tusks caused the death of some 100,000 African elephants in just three years - a 64 percent decline in Central Africa's elephant population.

But there is hope: The largest consumer of elephant ivory, China, recently passed a one-year ban on ivory imports, a measure that conservationists see as a good first step in the fight against poaching. In the U.S., ivory's second-largest market, ivory bans are spreading through the states while the federal government cracks down on wildlife trafficking.