Are elephants afraid of mice?

In the encounter between the strong and the weak, is it always the weak who is afraid?

Common sense would say yes. However, the saying “Better skill than strength” seems to indicate that, sometimes, it is not a question of power but of strategies.

Memes, illustrations and jokes of an elephant scared by the appearance of a mouse are circulating on the Internet. And there are arguments that ensure this the elephant gets scared if it discovers a mouse at his side.

Experts indicate that the pachyderm has a long distance and panoramic viewbut it is difficult for him to identify what is small and close.

In this sense one might think that, instead of with fear, he will react with surprise.

But you must know that an animal in a state of freedom is faced with many dangersand his instinct helps him escape both from physical phenomena, for example an earthquake, and from his own predatorswhich may be smaller in size.

What is an elephant afraid of?

Editor Ethan Smith is a scholar of the topic and has a blog, Guide to elephantswith interesting information about these animals.

Between elephant predators There are some that are smaller but have other abilities, such as lions, tigers, snakes and crocodiles.

And if the elephant is young fear many other things, such as move away from your mother AND to be lost of the package.

If it gets lost, it will call loudly and attract the lion or tiger, but also humans willing to hunt them.

The expert ensures that only the 50% of children survive their first year of life, since they have not yet acquired the strength or size to defend themselves.

Adults are more difficult to hunt and are characterized by a long life. But he adds that a pregnant elephant it is also easy to hunt because it is less agile and slower. The same thing happens with an injured adult elephant.

Are elephants afraid of mice?

Smith acknowledges that in Kenya and Tanzania, although there is no scientific evidence, they are circulating reports suggest that yes, it is a reality that elephants feel fear in the presence of a rodent.

Some scholars argue that there is a myth born from African folklore. The story goes that once, an elephant accidentally stepped on a mouse and the little animal screamed so loudly and shrillly that the larger one ran away in fright.

Others explain that these small animals are very agile and gifted unpredictable movements that make elephants nervous.

And there is no shortage of those who claim that the elephant has a super sense of smellso powerful that it even distinguishes the fear that the mouse feels.

A few decades ago the German zoologist Bernhard Grzimek performed it an experiment trying to unravel the issue.

the scientist He put several mice in the trunk of a group of elephants to observe the pachyderms’ reaction. Far from feeling fear, the elephants sniffed them, showing them off curiosities about rodents.

Likewise, Grzimek concluded that this attitude was not a “demonstration of sympathy” towards the small animals since, by placing them on the floor in front of them, They tried to crush them with their paws.

The truth is that the most serious arguments argue that this is the case an elephant is unlikely to be afraid of a rodent and that the myth probably derives from children’s cartoons, such as an African “Tom and Jerry”.

Elephants definitely have stronger concerns in the wild environment in which they move.