skip to content skip to search skip to navigation Listen Live skip to logon

Are elephants really scared of mice?

Question

I was watching Dumbo with my daughter and there’s a scene where an elephant was scared of a mouse. Is it true elephants are scared of mice and if so, why?
Stuart, Holloway

Answer

** Half-Definitive **
Name: Ian, Reigate
Qualification: I saw it on TV.
Answer: I believe elephants are very wary of mice. On Mythbusters on Discovery Channel, they put a toy mouse in front of an elephant and they ignored it. Then they did the same with a real mouse and the elephant gave it a very wide berth and was very hesitant. They couldn’t work out why, other than perhaps it was the short, jerky movements of a mouse.
(James O’Brien: You don’t get a full round of applause, as you don’t know why.)

In this Section