Very often you can hear the statement that elephants are panicky afraid of mice. At the same time, their behavior when meeting with a baby-gryzun may be the most inadequate. There is a belief that the elephant is capable of panic, even breaking the wall and any fence. Similar episodes are often described in films, books and other sources. But how reliable is this information?
Mice and elephants: causes of panic of the latter
- Initially, the cause of panic of elephants at the sight of mice was considered the fact that rodents caused a huge animal the pain in that they risen the foundation of huge legs, namely in the heel, where the skin of the elephants is delicate, and, accordingly, painful. They said that mice are able to bear almost whole moves in the legs of elephants, thereby causing them incredible suffering and torment. And that is why the mice inspire sacred horror.
- The second version of fear - the mice are not so afraid of giants that they calmly settle in the huge folds of their skin and live there for themselves chosenly, regularly getting out to find food for themselves, causing discomfort, inconvenience, and sometimes pain to the elephant. The probability that mice will parasitize on their body are forced to try to escape in panic at the sight of mice.
- They also say that the mice, climbing into the trunk of elephants, cause them attacks of suffocation, similar to asthmatic, which are able to cause suffocation, and even cause a fatal outcome, which causes fear of mice.
Scientists checked the phobia of elephants experimentally
However, all these statements were recognized as misconceptions, since scientists decided to conduct an experiment and prove or refute the assertion that elephants were afraid of mice and this is what happened to them:
- The mouse is not capable of strangling the elephant into the trunk, since the elephant is enough to exhale or sneeze to expel the rodent from there.
- It was desperate to settle on the body of elephants, it turned out that the depth of the folds was not constantly, and accordingly, not safe. It is easier for mice to live on land in their minks and not experiment.
- The assertion that mice can sprinkle the heel of the elephant, having caused it pain, also turned out to be fantasy and did not find confirmation during the experiments.
- Elephants themselves do not particularly notice the mice themselves, even in cases where they are planted in cells or bring them close to the body and eyes.
- The only thing that gave at least some result was the sudden appearance of the mouse in the path of the elephant. But he did not try to run away at the same time, destroying everything in his path. He simply bypassed the obstacle, but he did the same when the hedgehog, hare and rat stood in his way. That is, for the elephant it did not matter who suddenly appeared in front of him, he behaved the same in all cases - the obstacle was enveloped.
That is, it remains to conclude that the assertion that elephants are panicky are falsely afraid of mice, and has no reason. At the same time, the fact that this statement was accepted by people on faith for several centuries and did not cause no doubt looks very funny.
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