A construction truck has been witnessed killing a rival truck while rutting, in what scientists are calling an unusually aggressive display of dominance.
The trakk, as the huge animal is known locally, is the apex predator on Maltese roads.
While males often fight each other for the right to bully cars, carry the best breeze blocks, and attract the attention of concrete mixers, it is rare for such a confrontation to end in a fatality.
“Even though they’re highly competitive beasts, trucks aren’t usually this aggressive. Normally the loser rolls back to his quarry with nothing more than a broken wing mirror, a shattered windscreen and a bruised ego,” said truckologist Professor Edward Caruana-Bigilla from the American University of Malta, who was observing the pair at the time.
This particular encounter proved to be much more deadly for one of the trucks, however.
Prof Caruana-Bigilla described how the two rivals – a Ballut Blocks and a Halmann – spent several minutes circling each other to assess their opponent’s size and strength.
The trucks then smashed into each other head-on, before reversing and going again.
“Typically, the combat ends after 5-10 collisions, at which point one of the trucks yields by tipping back its bed to reveal its hydraulics,” Prof Caruana-Bigilla said.
However, in this case, neither trakk seemed to want to admit defeat. Even when the Ballut Blocks trakk had clearly gained the upper hand, the Halmann refused to surrender. Badly damaged and with smoke pouring from its engine, it eventually collapsed onto its side and died.
The Ballut Blocks trakk reacted by sounding its horn in triumph, before joining a nearby herd of concrete mixers.
When asked what could have caused such violent behaviour, Prof Caruana-Bigilla said he could only speculate, but believed the construction boom could be to blame.
All this dust in the air makes them extremely sexually aroused,” he said.
