Are Elephants Really Afraid of Mice?
At one time many people thought elephants were afraid of mice. It was believed the reason for this fear was that the mouse might get into the end of the elephant’s trunk. The idea was that the mouse might scratch the lining of the trunk or plug up the trunk so the elephant could not breathe. It is now known that none of these beliefs are true. In zoos, mice have been seen running about very near the tip of an elephant’s trunk, and the elephant did not pay any attention to them. Elephants have a very keen sense of smell, and they depend on this to warn them of danger. They may not be able to see mice on the floor, but they certainly can smell them as the mice scamper about near the tips of their trunks. The hole at the end of an elephant’s trunk would be a strange hole for a mouse. I do not believe a mouse would run into this strange hole without looking in first. By the time the mouse could have looked into the end of the trunk, the elephant would have smelled it. The elephant could th
Both Adam and Jaimie actually think that this myth is absolutely true and that elephants are really afraid of mice. To prove their hypothesis the go to an African Animal sanctuary. While their the plan is to create a reverse mousetrap. Adam takes elephant dung (not fresh, that’s another myth), pops a mouse inside its hollow, and attaches a string so it can be pulled over from a distance. They then set the trap and wait for the elephant. I was really shocked to see what happened after this. When they trigger the trap the elephant actually backs off!! Not scared acting, but enough to the point where he’s like, “no way am I going near that”. They then tried it again thinking it was just the movement and not the mouse that caused the elephant to move. So they do it again without the mouse…and whadda know…the elephant IGNORES it!!! What! One more test makes this one plausible. When they add the mouse back in, the elephant sees it and moves away. Outcome: Elephants may not be afraid of mice,
Elephants are the largest living land animal, and they have no reason to fear mice. In fact, elephants do not fear mice. A healthy elephant does not fear any animals. Danger comes only from man and, when elephants are in the wild, from natural disasters such as drought or fire. Why then is it commonly believed that elephants are
Mythbusters did a test about this and acutally as much as I love myth busters I was extremely upset at that episode… why? It was a very poor test and it gave false facts. Elephants are not scared of mice. On that test they used a white mouse, something that does not live in the wild around elephants. The elephants did not avoid it because it was a mouse, they avoided the mouse because it was not something they were used to seeing and took caution. Elephants might be large but they are extremely smart and know to avoid something that they have never seen before until they know what it is. Not to mention the color of the mouse stood out far more than a normal rodent making it easier for the elephant to see. Heck I have seen our elephants given new toys that are extremely large and they are very cautious around it until they know or understand what it is. It is no different with any animal really, be it a lion with a mouth full of fangs and paws full of claws or even a tiny mouse… whe
