Are elephants really scared of mice?

Mythbusters looked into this.

get out!!! I so don’t believe this… surely not…..but i so want to give you more lurve x

elephants don’t move like that…. do they…. the way his legs move… hmmmm dubious!

well yes, they are. but not in the panical way as often depicted in cartoons.

@johnpowell To me it looked more like WHOA THAT POO IS MOVING WTF. More testing required, IMO.

@richardhenry, they did the experiment several times – with a mouse under the rock or whatever, and without it. The elephant didn’t care at all about the thing moving unless it revealed a mouse.

(Edit for proper @ name – and to point out I just saw the video in the link – they edited it to remove the other tests, and only showed the tests with the mouse. If you watch the actual episode, you’ll see the tests with empty dung.)

@MrItty Ah, okay. Heh. That’s amazing then.

I suspect it would depend on whether it was an Asian or African elephant; the color and pattern on the mouse’s coat, the elephants visual acuity, and especially the mouses behavior while interacting with the elephant-many unknowns here.
Great question for Myth Busters, though.

@richardhenry rofl! very good xx

I think more research is needed though…. :-) will do some later after I’ve studied… although I may be able to fuse the two – as I am doing animal ethics… hmmm

I’ll supply the elephants.

We have lots of them in England.

indeed…we do!

Do you really, which kind?

This breed.

oh my richard!! that’s just abhorrent!! ew!! lol