QuickCheck: Is it true that elephants are afraid of mice?

ONE is the largest land animal on earth, the other is a small rodent.

Is it true that the mighty elephant is afraid of mice?

Verdict:

FALSE

It’s often depicted in cartoons and movies that elephants are afraid of mice.

However, such giant mammals are not particularly scared of mice.

If they are scared, it is due to the element of surprise rather than the mouse itself, based on a report by Live Science, a science news website.

"Theories abound that elephants are afraid of mice because the tiny creatures can nibble on their feet or can climb up into their trunks.

"However, there's no evidence to back up either of those claims," the website read.

In fact, should a mouse crawl up an elephant’s trunk, the elephant could easily blow and eject the rodent, said elephant expert Richard Lair in the report.

"In the wild, anything that suddenly runs or slithers by an elephant can spook it," said another expert, Josh Plotnik, a researcher of elephant behaviour and intelligence at the University of Cambridge in England.

As such, even other animals like cats, dogs or snakes that make sudden movements by an elephant’s feet could startle it.

There are also some incidents in zoos that suggest that elephants can get along with mice, according to the education site Wonderopolis.org

"Elephants in zoos often eat hay.

"Zookeepers have reported seeing mice in and around elephants’ hay.

"They say this doesn’t seem to bother the elephants at all. In fact, some elephants don’t even seem to mind mice crawling on their faces and trunks," said the website.

Some say that the myth can be traced back to Greek philosopher Pliny the Elder, who allegedly commented about it in 77 AD.

According to him, a mouse once crawled up an elephant's trunk and "drove him crazy."

This little bit of fake trivia survived the centuries and was again brought up in the 1600s when an Irish physician, Allen Mullen, concluded that elephants were worried that they might suffocate if a mouse crawled up their trunks.

According to him elephants lacked an epiglottis, a small protective cartilage in the throat that helps to keep out foreign bodies, thus might be prone to choking on too adventurous rodents.

However, his theory was just as false as the "mystery" it supposedly solved, elephants do have an epiglottis.

References:

1. https://www.livescience.com/33261-elephants-afraid-of-mice-.html

2. https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/are-elephants-really-afraid-of-mice

3. https://journals.biologists.com/jeb/article/216/21/4054/11693/Complex-vibratory-patterns-in-an-elephant-larynx