Pondering the situation, which seems kind of funny, I thought that maybe the elephant naturally fear that it could scamper up his trunk and suffocate him or cause dreadful harm. Any thoughts?
2007-11-22 01:47:20 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Zoology
I watched part of the same mythbusters. I only watched when they pulled the dung back and the mouse was under so I am not sure what other tests they did. Off of that test alone I 100% disagree with their findings. If anything the elephant was probably more thrown off by the hunk of poo that moved on its own than anything else. On top of that they used a white mouse that stuck out like a sore thumb and elephants do react to color. Chances are that between the moving ghost poo and the odd mouse that was not where it was supposed to be just told the elephant that something was wrong with the picture so they moved away.
If anything elephants are NOT scared by mice, but they can be startled by them. It is really no different than the majority of other animals out there. Good example.... I work at a zoo and from time to time there are tiny gray field mice and cockroaches that run through the gorilla habitat. Now the gorillas are not scared of the mice/roaches and I have even seen some of them be picked up and played with like toys or carried around like pets. However I have seen cases where one of the gorillas (even a 300lb+ silverback) be relaxing or having a bite to eat only to have a mouse/roach come running around the corner or from under something and startle the gorilla. Once the gorilla sees what it is they go back to what they are doing.
The reaction of the elephants can be the same way.
Hope that helps.
2007-11-22 02:57:01 · answer #1 · answered by The Cheshire 7 · 7⤊ 3⤋
This Site Might Help You.
RE:
Why are elephants afraid of mice. Just saw it on Mythbusters and it is infact true. There must be a reason.?
Pondering the situation, which seems kind of funny, I thought that maybe the elephant naturally fear that it could scamper up his trunk and suffocate him or cause dreadful harm. Any thoughts?
2015-08-13 19:03:41 · answer #2 · answered by Rosene 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First off, if a mouse crawled up an elephant's trunk, it would easily be ejected. There' a lot of power in that sneeze and the mouse would become a furry projectile. I'd say in the episode in question, the elephants were probably just cautious because they were confronted with something they'd never seen before. White mice don't tend to live long in nature. Elephants probably encounter rodents of different kinds often while foraging and don't care about them at all. Elephants in zoos and especially circuses probably encounter them all the time since mice would be attracted to their feed. Elephants aren't afraid of mice, but they're certainly cautious of things they have no experience with. I'd say this particular myth wasn't handled as well as it could have been. Instead of popping the mouse like a surprise at the elephants, they should have just let it scurry around more naturally. Heck, the elephant may have been freaked out by the dung since it moved on them and dung isn't supposed to do that, then associated the unnatural event with the mice.
2007-11-22 13:12:12 · answer #3 · answered by aarowswift 4 · 3⤊ 1⤋
If you watch the full episode of MythBusters you see that they move the fake dung without the mouse under it and the elephants don't react and they reproduce the experiment. This would seem to prove that the dung is not what scares the elephant.
Perhaps the elephant is afraid of harming the mouse, and not the other way around. The elephant could just be making sure not to step on the mouse.
What is different about what the MythBusters did is they surprised the elephant with the mouse. In a zoo or habitat, the mouse would be scampering around and the elephant would have already seen it and would avoid it without jumping backwards like it did on MythBusters.
The MythBusters proved there is a grain of truth to this myth. The elephants clearly avoided the mouse.
2007-11-24 05:11:54 · answer #4 · answered by Nathan S 1 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Sorry, myth busters is not infallible. This is one of their mistakes. Elephant are in fact NOT afraid of mice. However, they are afraid of the noises the mice make when scampering around.
As large as elephants are they are still prey animals. When young, they are fed upon by lions and hyenas. One pride of lions has even learned to take elephants up to about 3/4 grown.
Like most animals, when you take them from the wild and put them in captivity the instinctual fears tend to run a little overboard. In other words when there is nothing to direct the fear at it gets directed at relatively harmless things (some psychologists think this explains human phobias). In this case I suspect the elephants heard the mice but did not connect the actual site of the mice to the noise and paniced.
And arrowswift is correct as well. Elephants like all prey animals are cautious with things they have no experience with.
A previous experiment conducted by behavioral scientists found that the mouse could run all around the elephants feet and the elephants never minded...Until...the mouse ran over a paper peanut bag and made it rattle and rustle. The elephants paniced and went manic for a while.
2007-11-22 13:38:08 · answer #5 · answered by Jeff Sadler 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Because they can run up inside the trunk and eat their brains....braaaiiins.
Heidi, maybe an elephant is more intellegent than you, but speak for yourself. Elephants are not the most intellegent animal. Humans are. Then there are dolphins, whales and some primates.
Here you go, 2 minutes of research reveals if they are afraid at all this might be why.
If there's any truth to this legend at all, it likely comes from elephants' being anxious about nearby sounds or movement they can't identify, such as that caused by mice darting around underfoot. Elephants may be afraid of very little, but unlocatable sounds and small, fast objects that are difficult to follow can add up to something unidentifiable, one of the few things that signal "danger" to them. However, such a reaction could just as easily be triggered by something other than mice, such as small dogs.
not eat brains obviously, that was just a zombie joke.
2007-11-22 01:57:05 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
It's the possibility of dreadful harm:
In the natural world of animals, Elephants are amongst the most Fearless of the groups.
Due to their poor eyesight, they get anxious from nearby sounds and movements underfoot, (which they can not see)
Any thing unidentifiable would cause them to go into a fear & flee mode.
2007-11-22 02:08:10 · answer #7 · answered by Mama Mia 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The size of an elephant and a mouse is probably the same as the difference between our size and the size of a spider. Most people are afraid of the little beast even though it's illogical really. Elephants are the most intelligent animals so perhaps they just imagine mice to be poisonous or something.
2007-11-22 01:53:07 · answer #8 · answered by Heidi. 3 · 4⤊ 4⤋
A mouse is something small running around under a huge elephant - the elephant cant see it very well, it just sees something moving under its feet so it gets spooked. I see it all the time with rats and horses. Dont you get freaked out when a cat or something runs under your feet and you dont know what it is?
2007-11-22 02:49:01 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 2⤋
Because they stick tacks in their hooves silly
2014-02-24 18:55:20 · answer #10 · answered by CJ 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋