Are Elephants Afraid of Mice?

   In contrast with the elephant's comparative freedom from large enemies is the long-standing belief that elephants are afraid of mice. Lupton, in his A Thousand Notable Things, published in 1595, wrote: 'Elephants of all other beasts do chiefly hate the mouse.' The idea still persists, helped no doubt by such stories as that of the elephant in a zoo found dead from a hemorrhage and with a mouse jammed in its trunk.
   In 1938 Francis G Benedict and Robert C Lee, American zoologists, tested zoo ele­phants with rats and mice in their hay, and by putting rats and mice in the elephants' house. The pachyderms showed no concern even when the rodents ran over their feet or climbed on their trunks. White mice were also put in the elephants' enclosure. again without result. There was, however, one moment when a rat ran over a piece of paper lying on the ground. The unfamiliar noise of rustling paper set the nearest elephant trumpeting and before long all the others were joining in the chorus.