So if elephants are, in fact, freaked out by mice, why did the true or false quiz I just took in the quiz section of this site say I was wrong? HUH?! I wanna know!

The Mythbusters guys can feel free to send me an apology for giving me an F. Just email jonnytepin@yahoo.com

I'll crap if they actually respond.

Why didn't they test the sound of mice alone, and an electronic mouse with no sound?
Chasing an elefant with an electronic mouse might have obtained a more pronounced reaction.

quote:

Originally posted by mythmod:
Are elephants afraid of mice?

Talk About It Here!

MythMod

I have heard that elephants are very empathetic so I will bet you that the elephants are not arfaid of the mice but afraid of hurting the mice. I would suggest you guys talk to an elepnant behavior specialist.

Like many others posting on this, I think there is room for interpretation of exactly why the elephant shied at the sight of the mouse. Reaction to an unexpected movement? Concern of causing injury? I don't think the experiment was planned as carefully as it might have been.

Suggestion: Place a colony of mice in an area inhabited by elephants - I'm thinking of something in a open mesh material with runs and rooms to suggest natural movement/living condition for the mice/mouse. The idea is, this will allow the elephant to observe the mouse/mice as it approaches.

Maybe an entirely different outcome...

As for an mouse running up an elephant's trunk - I don't think either animal is that stupid...plus clogging one nostril wouldn't suffocate anything if the other nostril was unobstructed...

First... When they say shooting fish in a barrel... they don't mean one fish, they mean a barrel full of fish... thats why it would be so easy... cause the barrel is full and easy to shoot a fish in a barrel... second... i even saw this on discovery channel, lol... suger is the best cure for hot peppers... all peppers have a hot rating... they way the figure it out is how many parts per whatever of sugar does it take to get the burning of the pepper to go away...

I believe that the reaction of the elephants should be explained as Compassion for another living thing. The elephant has no reason to either fear or kill the mouse. I believe the elephant on recognizing the small creature near its feet backed up so as to avoid crushing the mouse.

I have a suggestion about the elephants afraid of mice... I noticed a white mouse was used, no offense but any wild animal will be startled by a white mouse, I think they should redo it using a gray, black, or brown mouse. I think it'd make more sense.

On another note, if the spicy cures happens to be tested again, how about trying tomatoes or maybe some type of oil.

quote:

Originally posted by jeep2001:
why not try a fake mouse or a simple cotton ball maybe the elephant was startled by the sudden white against the darker ground and maybe a different color mouse

The hubby and I were wondering if the actual myth were shooting fish from a barrel.

I just wonder why the little "mythbusters quiz" on animal myths still show elephants being afraid of mice as a myth. They already "confirmed" it.

Didn't they use a fake mouse or something along those lines and proved it wasn't the color and motion of the dung moving? As to fear, that first elephant's reaction was PLAINLY obvious as fear. That wasn't caution or empathy or anything like that. It was June Cleaver in the kitchen dancin on the table fear of mice.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ElNino:
So if elephants are, in fact, freaked out by mice, why did the true or false quiz I just took in the quiz section of this site say I was wrong? HUH?! I wanna know!

I would also like to know why this is. What's the correct answer? I have asked this before and the hole thread got deleted.

The best and most soothing relief for very hot peppers is sour cream. It washes the chemical out of the mouth and it also has a lot of heat retention (or cold retention) so it relievs the pain. Also, the Dr. Wilber Scoville scale of the peppers that you mentioned are incorrect. The Scoville scale is how many parts of pepper verses water are detectable. Pure capsacin can be detected by a person if there is only teaspoonful in a swimming pool. Test THAT myth!

I was a suprise that that elephant was in fact afraid of the mouse!

quote:

Originally posted by mythmod:
Are elephants afraid of mice?

Talk About It Here!

MythMod

it doesn't make any sense

This makes perfect sense to me. Elephants have very sensitive feet. (detects slight vibrations in the earth) They use this sensitivity to communicate by detecting ultra low frequencies (of course there huge ears help too.)

So, whats this have to do with the myth? The elephant is protecting a sensitive part of its body by moving away from the mouse. Its probably associating its size as a threat. Small things are capable of inflicting serious pain in Africa; poisonous snakes, scorpions, giant ants, the list goes on. The elephant is smart enough to know these other animals, so it stays away from the mouse.

I think you missed trying with a brown rat (rattus norvegicus) and any snake. To test if the elephant is afraid of any small thing moving. Or if it is the elephants empathic behaviour not to kill other cretures.


And what is up with the registration to this forum?

It demands that you use some other keyboard setup so: / and @ is very hard to find. Had to use Ctrl+C just to be able to use them to finish the registration, I guess you dont get many european discussers that way.

And please start using celsius/kelvin and the metric system a bit more, since everyone know that is what scientists use worldwide.

I'm a little surprised that in 8 pages of posts no one has brought up that they probably used a white mouse because that's the color that showed up easiest on t.v.! As 2 other posters already said, the myth itself does not specify what color the mouse needs to be. While I agree that the unnatural white color of the mouse may have had something to do with the elephant's reaction, and while I, myself, would be interested in seeing it repeated with a more natural-colored mouse, I suspect the producers would frown on using any color that's hard for the audience to see. Especially when this entire segment was a spur of the moment thing to begin with!

quote:

Originally posted by nicelyroastedbeans:
I propose that it is because the presence of mice often indicates the presence of human domiciles, so the elephant has "remembered" to stay away from them

As someone who has done field work catching wild mice, I can tell you that you can find LOTS of mice very far away from any human development. Especially deer mice, those things are everywhere! I've never been to Africa, but I don't see how it would be any different over there.

Wow!

Has no one even seen the strange "immunity to wasabi" Tori displays? Well, i most surely did. I realized this was actually possible watching the French Movie called "Wasabi" with Jean Reno a couple years ago; that guy can litteraly engulf pounds of the stuff and after a little experimentation ...me too! Kinda tastes ...i don't know, greenish? Remove this supposed hotness and it's pretty ...lame, actually. I found it most amusing to see Tori being unaffected as well.

Anyway, maybe we could see something about this, or you could try it; i don't know if it's genetics or something, but it definitly is a weird thing to find about: some of us are immune to wasabi... could we be "immune" to other strong or weird tastes?

quote:

Originally posted by jeep2001:
why not try a fake mouse or a simple cotton ball maybe the elephant was startled by the sudden white against the darker ground and maybe a different color mouse

I agree. The elephant may have been startled by:
1. the appearance of a white object
Test by exposing a white non-alive object
2. the appearance of a live white object
Test by exposing a normal wild mouse rather
than a white lab one