Are Elephants Really Afraid of Mice?

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Once again the Mythbusters answer the big questions!

Mythbusters: Elephants are Afraid of Mice

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Yeah, I Saw That Episode...

And they forgot one very important thing in their "myth busting, the mouse that they used was a WHITE lab mouse, not a BROWN mouse field mouse. If they had used a common mouse, test might have been different.
May Your Light Forever Shine

    Stanman
May Your Light Forever Shine

Zookeeper

erin's picture

I read an article by a zookeeper once about thirty years ago saying that yes, elephants are cautious of mice and other rodents who will gnaw on their feet while they sleep! Apparently rhinos feel the same way. Neither big beast has much feeling in their feet so they can be badly injured by gnawing rodents. The feet contain big cushions of fat and cartilage, tasty I guess if you like that sort of thing.

As a farm kid, I know that cows and horses don't like mice or rats in their stalls and will often try to kill them. And they are tolerant of cats.

- Erin

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

Turd Monsters

Poor elephants didn't see mice they saw evil turd monsters. Okay, I will leave now before to let the adults talk :-)

Who's afraid?

One of my favorite programs even if I have a problem from time to time with their testing methods. My favorites are the ones everyone knows but is wrong. Such as letting the tailgate down on your pickup will get you better gas mileage. BUSTED! Or the bullets fired at targets underwater.

I like Erin's explanation and the Busters experiment did come out plausible. Thanks for posting Scott!
grover