# Animals capable of killing elephants **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 26, 2004, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207 "2004-09-26T22:40:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/41 "2004-09-27T18:19:01Z")
> [@BMalion](#): > > A Ninja. Ninjas are cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/42 "2004-09-27T18:25:18Z")
> [@tim314](#): > > I vote for a blue whale dropped from a thousand feet directly above the elephant. Oh no. Not again! ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/43 "2004-09-27T20:21:12Z")
2 mice and a medium dog can kill an elephant. If the mice can be trained to jump into each nostril and plug it up, the dog could jump into the mouth and plug that up, then the elephant would sufficate. Unless, the elephant could blow his nose, so first we’d have to train a horse to kick the elephant in the sternum to knock the breath out of him. The elephant’s sternum is hard to get at for a horse to kick. We’d need to either, catch the elephant unawares sleeping or, train _alot_ of Irish wolfhounds to act in concert with ropes clenched in their jaws and trip the elephant which would allow the horse to kick the breath out of him, allowing the medium dog to jam his airpipe and finally, the 2 brave mice, scampering into the trunk, giving their lives in the cause of elephantine destruction. Please note my plan uses only animals that have a long tradition of being tamed by humans. Please note that my plan would probubly result in the elephant stomping the crap out of my circus act. Where’s Rube Goldberg when you need him? ---
**Author:** ![Chimpy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@Chimpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimpy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/44 "2004-09-27T20:51:00Z")
Batman can, if prepared. But seriously, could a dog be bred to do this, á la Pitbull Terriers? ---
**Author:** ![Complex\_Conjugate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Complex\_Conjugate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Complex_Conjugate)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/45 "2004-09-27T21:36:37Z")
Elephants are scared of mice, there must be a reason for this. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/46 "2004-09-27T22:20:38Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Which is no doubt why we never saw any elephants in the bushland where I grew up. Was there a strawberry patch? Because if the elephant’s toenails were painted… ---
**Author:** ![BarnOwl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@BarnOwl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BarnOwl)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/47 "2004-09-27T22:32:32Z")
> [@Christopher](#): > > Do elephants get worms? Good question! Now I have to ask more specifically, do elephants get lymphatic filariasis, and what would they call it? What would it look like? Elephantiasis? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/48 "2004-09-27T23:22:52Z")
> [@Boyo Jim](#): > > I misread this to be a question about whether a **hippie** could do it. > > Hippie: Get away from those bales of pot, Dumbo, or I’ll brain you with my hackie sack! Well, in view of the hallucinations that the original Dumbo of the Disney cartoon went through… :eek: (Do you suppose the Disney cartoonists were inclined to do a few hits after work?) I’m now visuailizing Shaggy from Scooby Doo and Dumbo sitting around passing a joint and singing Dylan off-key “But I _would_ not feel so all alone…” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/49 "2004-09-27T23:40:15Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Was there a strawberry patch? Because if the elephant’s toenails were painted… There was, actually. Never thought of that. _Now_ I understand about the footprints in the custard. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/50 "2004-09-28T02:00:38Z")
> [@gytalf2000](#): > > animals besides human hunters with rifles? Sure! Human hunters with rocket launchers. Human hunters with laser-guided bombs. Human hunters with atomic hand grenades. ---
**Author:** ![stockton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@stockton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stockton)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/51 "2004-09-28T02:19:47Z")
> [@t-keela](#): > > 1st because I don’t know…are you male or female. If you’re a guy I’d say yeah right. You wish you had a trunk down there…me too for that matter. A prehensile penis, that’d be real handy. :eek: > > If you are female, I’d say lucky girl. > You beat it to death I guess. 😉 > > After thinking about it for a second I realize you must be female 'cause I don’t know any guys that actually wear PJ’s. We get for gifts from our moms and grandma’s. But we don’t ever wear them. > I’ve got a pair that are so old they’ve got feet them. heh-heh-heh… 😃 Wow! You can take a little whoosh for a trip around the world. You certainly read a lot into one line. Thanks for all your input. I am a guy. My miniscule offhand joke was one of Groucho Marx’s most famous set-up lines. It’s quite well known. Unfortunately, now we know about your old pajamas, too. “More often than not, Groucho was a man of inspired nonsense. This is a man who once shot an elephant in his pajamas. How the elephant got in his pajamas, we’ll never know.” [http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WolfFiles/wolffiles230.html](http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/WolfFiles/wolffiles230.html) Good luck on the prehensile penis. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/52 "2004-09-28T04:32:10Z")
What about a [komodo dragon?](http://www.umdnj.edu/umcweb/hstate/wntr00/pulse/pulse2.htm) > [@](#): > > t so happens that the creature’s saliva is home to 52 different strains of bacteria, some of them known to be highly septic. If the beast doesn’t manage to kill its prey on the spot, its bite will introduce germs potent enough to destroy its quarry with a massive infection within 72 hours. ---
**Author:** ![t-keela](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a3d4f5/32.png) [@t-keela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/t-keela)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/53 "2004-09-28T04:49:41Z")
> [@Boyo Jim](#): > > Ok, I’ll bite. What was it doing in your pajamas? Hey **BJ** asked the question, I just thought I’d elaborate a bit. And I thought the bit about the feet in the PJ’s was funny. I had forgotten about the Groucho setup…I knew it sounded familiar though. The prehensile penis refers back to a thread the other day. I can’t find the link though. > [@stockton](#): > > You certainly read a lot into one line. Thanks for all your input. Read a lot into it ya say? Well if you know me, I like a good conspiracy, heh. 😃 I forgot this was GQ, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eada6e/32.png) [@Go\_You\_Big\_Red\_Fire\_Engine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/54 "2004-09-28T11:12:13Z")
> [@Antiochus](#): > > Elephantiasis? 🙂 Damn, you beat me to the Elephantiasis mention. Makes you wonder what would happen if an elephant got elephantiasis? Here’s some pictures of humans with elephantiasis to give you some perspective: [Work Safe, kinda gross](http://www.filariasis.org/images/photo_leg5.jpg) [Work safe, also kinda gross.](http://www.hieroglyphen.net/aegypten/elephantiasis.jpg) [NOT WORK SAFE, LINK ALTERED](http://http://www.cvm.okstate.edu/~users/jcfox/htdocs/DISK1/IMAGES/elephantiasis.JPG) hey, **Princechester** come join our [Brissie Dopefest](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=276551) ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/55 "2004-09-28T15:27:40Z")
A wolverine could (once inserted rectally). ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/56 "2004-09-28T15:51:54Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > A wolverine could (once inserted rectally). Lemmiwinks II: Lost Elephant’s Gold ---
**Author:** ![KP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a9adbd/32.png) [@KP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KP)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/57 "2004-09-28T16:05:33Z")
Though I certainly can’t think of a viable candidate who would actually attack an elephant in the wild (with any frequency), elephant herds certainly _act_ like they have predators, even in early colonial accounts. It really blows my mind to think that those long-established, seemingly instinctive, herd behaviors [e.g. sentinels, etc.] might be designed to protect against _us_ – though humans and/or their ancestors have been as much a part of the elephant’s natural habitat as any other animal. Part of the reason this blows my mind is that elephants are fairly intelligent, and have quite sophisticated social learning. This raises the possibility that these are not instinctive behaviors but socially transmitted teachings. (Poor guys, hanging out in the savannah, not bothering anything, but living in constant paranoia over us pesky humans. Make you want to go out and shoot a safari huinter – but that’s basically the human impulse that causes the problem in the first place, isn’t it?) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/58 "2004-09-28T16:47:03Z")
[Thomas Edison](http://www.fact-index.com/t/to/topsy_the_elephant.html) ---
**Author:** ![Scarface\_Z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Scarface\_Z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarface_Z)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/59 "2004-09-28T18:01:25Z")
tigers can kill full grown elephants with one swipe of the paw to the face of said elephant. furthermore, anything bigger than a breadbox could jump down the gullet of an elephant and choke it to death. interesting side story… in certain african tribes, to become a warrior a young man must go out with an ivory sword and kill an animal and bring back a piece of it to prove his deed. the amount of danger involved in killing the animal increases the mans social ranking within the tribe (i.e. kill a hippo or cape buffalo and your the man). elephants sleep standing up, so a young man will walk under a sleeping elephant, and stab the sword upwards below the ribs. the elephant will wake up and instinctively run forward. hence by running forward, it allows the sword to slice a hole straight down it’s torso and the guts fall out, death, etc. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207/60 "2004-09-28T18:29:41Z")
> [@Scarface Z](#): > > tigers can kill full grown elephants with one swipe of the paw to the face of said elephant. Cite? > [@](#): > > interesting side story… > in certain african tribes, to become a warrior a young man must go out with an ivory sword and kill an animal and bring back a piece of it to prove his deed. the amount of danger involved in killing the animal increases the mans social ranking within the tribe (i.e. kill a hippo or cape buffalo and your the man). elephants sleep standing up, so a young man will walk under a sleeping elephant, and stab the sword upwards below the ribs. the elephant will wake up and instinctively run forward. hence by running forward, it allows the sword to slice a hole straight down it’s torso and the guts fall out, death, etc. and… Cite? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animals-capable-of-killing-elephants/266207.md?page=4)