# do rhinos stamp out fires? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 30, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-rhinos-stamp-out-fires/314915 "2005-07-30T18:41:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![salaamesdar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@salaamesdar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salaamesdar)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-rhinos-stamp-out-fires/314915/1 "2005-07-30T18:41:55Z")
i am wondering if rhinos are really the “self-appointed fire officers”? according to “the gods must be crazy” when a rhino sees a fire, he runs and stamps it out. i have lived in africa my whole life and have never heard this one except on that movie. is it true or is it just a farce? ---
**Author:** ![Amp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Amp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amp)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-rhinos-stamp-out-fires/314915/2 "2005-07-30T18:48:27Z")
I don’t know if it is true or not but I have also heard it referenced on _The Simpsons_. Take it for what it’s worth. ---
**Author:** ![Scruloose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Scruloose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruloose)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-rhinos-stamp-out-fires/314915/3 "2005-07-30T19:22:03Z")
According to Wiki - this alleged behavior has yet to be proven: > [@](#): > > There are a number of legends about the rhinoceros stamping out fire. The story seems to have been common in Malaysia and Burma. > > This type of rhinoceros even had a special name in Malay, ‘badak api’, where badak means rhinoceros and api means fire. The animal would come when a fire is lit in the forest and stamp it out. > > Whether or not there is any truth to this has not yet been proven. Suffice it to say that there has been no sighting of this phenomenon in recent history, something which may stem from the fact that rhinoceros sightings overall in South East Asia have become very rare - much due to widespread illegal poaching of the critically endangered animal. > **[Rhinoceros](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros)** > > Ceratotherium > Dicerorhinus > Diceros > Rhinoceros > †Coelodonta > †Stephanorhinus > †Elasmotherium > Fossil genera, see text > A rhinoceros (/raɪˈnɒsərəs/, from Greek rhinokerōs 'nose-horned', from rhis 'nose', and keras 'horn'), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. (It can also refer to a member of any of the extinct species of the superfamily Rhinocerotoidea.) Two of the extant s... ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-rhinos-stamp-out-fires/314915/4 "2005-07-30T19:25:06Z")
Actually, ducks stamp out fires. Rhinos stamp out burning ducks. What? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-rhinos-stamp-out-fires/314915/5 "2005-07-31T01:23:35Z")
Waterfowl joke. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-rhinos-stamp-out-fires/314915/6 "2005-07-31T02:07:33Z")
In the USofA, it’s female sheep that extinguish flames. Only ewes can prevent forest fires. ---
**Author:** ![Tenar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@Tenar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tenar)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-rhinos-stamp-out-fires/314915/7 "2005-07-31T02:12:36Z")
**do rhinos stamp out fires?** Only rhinos wearing brown felt ranger hats. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2005, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-rhinos-stamp-out-fires/314915/8 "2005-07-31T03:12:53Z")
The scene in question in the movie: [http://www.interculturalrelations.com/v1i2Spring1998/sp98wilmot.htm](http://www.interculturalrelations.com/v1i2Spring1998/sp98wilmot.htm) > [@](#): > > There is one scene when a guide is bringing Miss Thompson to the village. They have built a campfire when a rhinoceros promptly appears to stomp it out. Miss Thompson does not see it happen and thinks the guide is crazy for what he is telling her. Some other locals are passing by and when she asks them for confirmation that a rhinoceros can, indeed, stamp out fires, they admit that it is so. However, she only sees them shaking their heads “no”. Little does she know that this gesture means “yes”! The movie was low budget, and it is very unlikely that they found a trained rhino. However, it was a long time since I saw this movie so some special effects may have been involved, but IIRC the scene was done without trickery. Does the stomping looks natural and with no apparent (in the 80’s you could still tell) special effects?