Okay, Elephants might not be completely terrified of mice, but they certainly do seem to be afraid of them :



But are the Mythbusters wrong? Are elephants really afraid of mice, in the way some humans freak out when they see a spider scurrying towards them?

Or are these elephants in fact purposely trying to avoid stepping on them? Maybe they've had enough experience stepping on small animals as youngsters to not want to get squished rodent between their toes.

Also, it must not be forgotten, that elephants use their trunks like we use our hands. When they're looking around for fruit on a forest floor, their trunks are snuffling around through undergrowth and grass.

It might simply be they know enough to avoid small darting things because snakes, and some rodents, would bite at a trunk that accidentally finds them amongst the fruit and leaf litter around the base of tree..

Or maybe there's simply a kind of heeby-jeebies terror of small animals running up the inside of their trunks and getting caught.

Whatever the reason, the idea proposed by MythBusters that elephants are irrationally scared of mice is ridiculous.

Considering the (however small in scale) level of threat posed by rodents, spiders, snakes to a snuffling trunk, it makes sense that elephants would learn over the years to rear back and step cautiously around a quick moving something they've only just seen or become aware of.

Elephants can hardly be compared to a man or woman standing on a chair shrieking insanely because there's a mouse, spider or monster cockroach darting around the floor.

Elephants have far more dignity than that.

Smack Addict Elephant Goes Bezerk During Cold Turkey

Good Christ. Can you even begin to imagine what sort of horrors a heroin-addicted elephant could unleash when it's forced to go through cold turkey withdrawals?

Incredible :

A once drug-addled elephant fed heroin-laced bananas by illegal traders will soon return to the wild after being weaned off his addiction through methadone and round-the-clock care.

"Big Brother", a bull elephant that once "lived peacefully" with his herd near the China-Myanmar border in Yunnan province, was caught by traders in 2005, the China Daily said on Thursday.

"To control it so that it could lead the herd to where they wanted, the traders kept feeding it bananas laced with drugs," the paper said.

...Big Brother had developed a raging heroin addiction and posed a danger to people if denied its fix, the paper said, citing police.

A drooling and twitching Big Brother had to be transported to a special park in the neighbouring island province of Hainan for treatment, after cold turkey proved so tortuous at a local centre that "even its iron chain could not contain it", the paper said.

It took a year to slowly wean the elephant off its favourite drug. That process apparently involved lots of bathing, massage and methadone. The elephant is now being returned to the wild. Wiser for a less than wonderful encounter with humanity.

Good thing they sorted out this junkie when they did, before he started trying to climb through windows to steal DVD players.

Elephant Beats Zookeeper When Its Meals Are Served Late

Suzi The Elephant Also Doubles As Harmonica Player, Children's Ride And Saluter Of Visitors

Imagine trying to get away with this sort of behaviour in your favourite restaurant?

The only elephant in a Pakistani zoo knows when its meals are being served late, and it knows how to deal with such insubordination.

'Suzi' the elephant seizes a cane in its trunk and beats the zookeeper with it, no doubt providing much enjoyment for the crowds that gather to watch this apparently regular ritual in Lahore.

If you think that's cute, the zoo is looking for donors to sponsor the elephant's meals, as they are running out of money and can't afford to keep the aggrophant for much longer :

The zoo was hoping philanthropists and schools would "adopt" Suzi and pay for its food, the paper said today.

"We don't have enough funds to feed Suzi and its expenses are more than our budget," said zoo director Yousuf Pal.

Actually, on further research, forget the donations. It appears the zoo has a few problems with its rare animals dying from curable diseases, the most recent victim a chimpanzee, and gets 'Suzi' to regularly beg for money from crowds, which she collects in her trunk :

“This is a negative trend which is totally against zoo ethics,” sources said. They said that the 20-year-old Suzi was living alone, which was rather sad because elephants normally live in groups. There should be more elephants at the Lahore Zoo, they said.

Perhaps money should be raised to rescue poor old, lonely Suzi from the zoo before the 'beat the zookeeper' donations start pouring in.

This 'Elephant Beats Zookeeper' story, which will be the top of the 'most read' stories on internet news sites around the world today, hides a few important facts about Suzi. She is likely to be beating the zookeeper not only because her meals are late, but because those meals are becoming more infrequent as the zoo doesn't have the money to feed her any longer.

More research reveals that the zoo also uses Suzi as an amusement ride for kids.

And she also has to play the harmonica for the amusement of the crowds. How many gigs does this poor old elephant have?

And more still. People visiting the zoo are also charged money to get a 'salute' from Suzi.

Seems Suzi might be beating her zookeeper for a few other reasons than just the late meal service.