In the tales and myths of many nations there is a legend about a giant coward and a small or even small creature defeating a giant. Let us recall the biblical myth of the giant Goliath, whom young David killed with a stone from a sling. Ancient myths about little brave souls are also reflected in modern times: for example, the mouse from the cartoon “Tom and Jerry” always defeats the cat, although in real life such an outcome of the battle between these animals is hardly possible. Then why are elephants afraid of mice? Is this a myth or a truth?
People relate with great reverence to the views of reputable scientists. Aristotle wrote that the spider has six legs - and this was considered an indisputable fact right up to Francis Bacon. Two thousand years ago, the historian and naturalist Pliny the Elder wrote that elephants are afraid of mice, and many still share this opinion. According to Pliny, the powerful African giants do not even want to eat food that stinks of mice. Say, their whole herds take to flight at the sight of only one mouse that appeared in front of them. Could this be and, most importantly, why?
The ancient Roman scientist put forward several versions explaining why elephants are afraid of mice. According to one of them, vile rodents gnaw through the interdigital joints of elephants, making their paws vulnerable. Small nimble animals manage to gnaw at the heels of elephants at night and even make their own minks there in order to breed cubs in the heat of a giant body! Therefore, elephants prefer to sleep standing - so as not to tempt fate. In addition, Pliny assured that the mice used to make their way into the trunk of the giants, which is why they can suffocate. Thus, even in these intelligent animals, there is an irresistible fear of these babies at a reflex level.
The opinion of the eminent scientist was considered immutable, except that people were looking for additional explanations of why elephants are afraid of mice. But in Europe there were circuses and zoos in which they began to keep elephants. Then the caretakers for the animals and noticed that near the cells and aviaries with giants mice always start. This is not surprising: elephants have not the sharpest vision, often leave pieces of food (bran, fruits and root crops), but what for such a giant baby, for a small animal - food for a week. However, people saw that elephants calmly react to tiny cage neighbors. True, they did not eat food with rodents, but on the other hand, would you eat food in which something moves? As soon as the mouse left the armful of hay, a powerful animal began to chew him calmly.
Then people thought seriously: are elephants afraid of mice? They began to conduct research. Rodents were allowed to go along the herd of giants. If the shortsighted giants saw tiny animals, they carefully stepped over them or avoided them, but most often the mice found their death under huge paws. People tried to show the mouse to the elephant, but contrary to Pliny the Elder, he did not recoil and did not show any panic, but, on the contrary, reached for her with a trunk to sniff an unfamiliar animal, and then lost all interest in him. Even if you let the rat go for a walk on the giant’s powerful back, he won’t even lead by ear. And if suddenly some mouse decides to commit suicide and for this purpose it gets into the elephant trunk, the giant only needs to sneeze, as a tiny animal will fly a couple of meters.
Perhaps scientists have guessed, the secret of why elephants are afraid of mice lies not in the rodents themselves, but in the suddenness of their appearance? Or their squeak? The largest land animals have a well-developed hearing, and when they hear a mouse squeak, they really listen carefully. But then calm returns to them, and they continue to do their own thing. What is the matter? Scientists have only recently discovered a riddle. Elephants - at least African ones - are afraid of the honey bee found on this continent. Bees live in huge colonies of several thousand insects. The buzzing of one bee means there are others nearby. And elephants do not want to mess with a wild swarm of angry bees. Hence the conclusion of scientists: when they hear the squeak of mice, careful giants are listening intently - aren't they bees?