Why are elephants called "gentle giants"? Weren't their ancestors (the wooly mammoth and the mastodon) wild???

Answer 1

Firstly, the woolly mammoth and mastodon were not the ancestors of elephants - these species were all around at the same time, having evolved from a common ancestor.

Secondly, the person who said "gentle giants" is a misnomer is correct - elephants can be extremely aggressive and are very dangerous. I have seen them kill a buffalo simply because it wandered into the middle of their herd, and numerous people are killed by them each year. Many tourists are given the wrong idea by ridiculously anthropomorphic nature programmes that depict elephants as gentle giants, or even just big grey humans, and think they can walk up to a wild elephant and take its photo or even touch it. Most of those that try this don't come out of it in one piece (or if they do it's one big flat piece).

Answer 2

That can only be a misnomer applied by people that know very little about elephants. There are serious conflicts in parts of Africa between elephants and people. For the most part people generally loose.

Elephants are very territorial. Elephants are very protective of young. You will note that the adult elephant has only one predator, Homo sapiens. The very young do occasionally fall prey to lions.

Therefore about the only time an elephant becomes a gentle giant is when it is asleep.

Answer 3

Maybe they are called 'Gentle Giants' because of the way they take care of each other. I was watching a web cam in Africa and I SAW a baby elephant stuck in mud and two adults came to it's rescue. The prodded it with their trunks until it was able to finally get free. It was AMAZING to watch. Elephants are VERY family oriented and care a lot for each other.

Answer 4

Because those back in the days were crazy and now these ones are soft a nice intel you piss them off lol

Answer 5

ur talking about the elephants now,not their anscestors