Many years ago, on the locally-produced show Zoo Parade, then curator Marlin Perkins let a white mouse crawl all over one of the Zoo elephant's trunk.
The elephant took no notice.

I agree with many of the posters here; the sudden appearance of a white (unnatural) mouse nearly underfoot would have been startling to the elephant, who would naturally avoid it.
I'd say natural caution, rather than fear.

The "crawling up the trunk" is nonsense.

I agree with many of the others. It could very well be concluded that the elephant simply avoided another living being to insure that it (the elephant) did not harm it. I feel as though other, additional, animals should have been used to verify whether the actions of the elephant were specific to the mouse.

I think that the mouse was so bright it stuck out and the elephant was able to notice it more but the elephant might have been scared that the mouse would climb into its trunk and get stuck because each time it saw the mouse it pulled its trunk back first

I'm surprised everyone is so critical of this test, I thought it went pretty well. Unless you find a way to talk to an elephant your never going to know if it was actually afraid or just didn't want to the mouse. Unless the elephant flat out runs away the same would go for any other animal as well. The myth said nothing about the reason why elephants were afraid of mice they were just testing if it were true. Simple test - plausible, well done MB.

I found an interest article on the net, ref: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/29/messages/976.html
Quote from that website: "When we were kids we would catch fish with a net in the river and put them in a barrel alive for temporary keeping. One shot into the barrel (the top of the barrel had been removed) would produce a shock wave and all the fish would float to the top. It was much easier than attempting to catch the live fish swimming around in circles in the barrel."

Maybe, "Shooting fish in a barrel" is just an easy way of collecting live captured fish.

I concur with the messages about brown vs white mice, but the elephants might just not want to kill, period. Try the test with a frog, or salamander. If the elephant changes his course, then he just does not like to kill.

Ref, my previous entry. I had recorded "Shooting Fish in a Barrel" and watched part of it before searching the internet. As this episode did discuss the shock effects, the moral here is to watch the full episode before commenting.

After doing research, I found that, no elephants are not afraid of mice. The myths earliest known referece is by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia which was translated in 1601.
Zoooligists have repeatedly disproved this myth, but it continues to cling. The elephants are not afraid of the mouse itself, but most likely of the unidentifiable sound and movement associated with the mouse moving around.
Elephants in the wild would have very little cause to come in contact with a mouse, and in the episode last night the elephant, although used to human beings was more likely reacting to the smell or the sound of the obvious lab mouse. Everything I reasearched pointed out that the reaction would most likely be indentical for any relatively small creature the elephant encountered.

first off, guys great shows this season. the gun at the ending of fish in a barrel was great to watch! cant say enough when you guys go waaaaay past myth to make your point.

i cant seem to find kari's payback clip for the peppers which i would like to see.

as far as the last posting. i think there is a flaw in the logic of your statement. "the elephants are not afraid of the mouse itself, but most likely the unidentifiable sound and movement associated with the mouse moving around". is this not part of being a mouse? the movement and the sound of a mouse does not encumbant the being of a mouse? how about rattlers that only see heat signatures? if they only see a humans heat they aren't seeing a human in their scope of vision.

as for what i saw. you guys made plausable looked so close to confirmed. but as many have stated we wont know until we can talk elephant.

I have to agree that this one was a waste of time to show.

I don't understand how they missed such a major issue as to use a native field mouse instead of a white feeder mouse.

They also should have done several tests and one should have been a fake mouse to see if it was the movement of the mouse that made them back up and give room.

I have to agree that the result of "plausible" just isn't good enough with the lack of testing for this myth.

THe best cure for a hot mouth is offcourse sugar.
i learnt this when i was a kid.
If the food was too spicy put some sugar on top of it and it will cool down in your mouth.

I have to say, i was suprised at the elephant's reaction. I do have one thing to say about it. It may have just been the mouse's color. Try using a black mouse.

After watching the elephant and the mouse, I found the result interesting and predictable, but the wrong conclusion. Elephants are highly intelligent animals and I believe recognize other animals and have no intention to harm them. I think the same result would have occured with any small animal placed in the elephants path - they did not react in fear but simply in not wanting to step on another animal. A fear reaction would have resulted in trumpeting a warning to the other elephants - in this case they simply backed up and gave the mouse a wide berth as they proceeded along their original path.

quote:

Originally posted by mythmod:
Are elephants afraid of mice?

Talk About It Here!

MythMod

I loved this myth. But I've also studied animals. That elephant "snifs" the mouse, AND the "blind turd" due to movement. The first attempt, that giant stops dead, and you can even see his bulk catching up with him. Wild! On the "no mouse" blind, the elephant notices the movement, takes a "sniff" and heads on. But, on the second test, the elephant notices the movement, starts to sniff THEN backs off. Could it be the smell of the rodent's urine? Or, just the smell of the rodent that gives them pause?

Still, the GIANT creature knows either way that the little mouse is not something to be triffled with.

I've always thought that the elephant's nose is so important (huge number of muscles, like an extra arm, etc.), that it doesn't want something so fast moving, or small, to enter it's main vein? It's trumpet of truth?

What do you think?

it crazy elepant are afraid of mice

i have to agree with tgalex....I don't think it was fear but a form of respect. The mouse posed no threat so why would hefalump wish to hurt him? I have seen many examples of elephants joining together to help each other, they are social by nature so this makes total sense too me and was my first thought as well

In fish of the barrel they should test to see how for a fish can die from the shock waves and also if is it more likely for a small fish to die from the shock waves from a bigger fish. In the mouse one why not try useing difrent animals or colors a brown mouse might not scare it. May also test, if it is the color to use other white animals.

quote:

Originally posted by dandysgirl:
These are some of the silliest hypotheses I've ever read; running up an elephant's trunk? Sensitive feet? Elephants track over Africa's rough terrain for many, many miles in search of food and water...

When I said they had sensative feet, I didn't mean they had uber step-on-a-pebble-and-die sensativity. They have sensative feet like we do. They're not going to go trampling on something when they don't know what it is or can't see it.

I also wonder whether the color of the mouse is an issue. Aposematic coloration (animals that stand out strongly from the environment) usually indicates a poisonous or venomous creature - a species that benefits, on average, by having predators see it, recognize it, and learn to avoid it. The elephants might think of a white mouse like a poisonous snake, in other words. It is very interesting, though - nearly every other urban-legend site says it's bogus, but it's such an old myth, dating back to the good old cartoons that nobody shows on television any more, that it seems like it could easily be based on an early naturalistic observation. Definitely revisit with both white and agouti mice.

quote:

Originally posted by rcguy2:
spicy peppers! try salt in mouth works better than milk!!

i agree with rcguy2 salt works much beter