# Elephants and Peanuts?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephants-and-peanuts/94797>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 22, 2001, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephants-and-peanuts/94797 "2001-11-22T19:48:19Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2001, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephants-and-peanuts/94797/1 "2001-11-22T19:48:19Z")

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Of all the things you could feed an elephant, why is there the cliche that they like peanuts? The only plausible guess I can think of is that back when zoos and circuses let you feed the animals, peanuts were a standard item for sale. Can anyone back this up?

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**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2001, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephants-and-peanuts/94797/2 "2001-11-23T04:07:35Z")

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Sheesh, why ask US if you already know? 😃😃

[http://www.aboutpeanuts.com/infohis.html](http://www.aboutpeanuts.com/infohis.html)

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> The first notable increase in U.S. peanut consumption came in 1860 with the outbreak of the Civil War. Northern soldiers, as well as Southern, used the peanut as a food. During the last half of the 19th century, peanuts were eaten as a snack, sold freshly roasted by street vendors and at baseball games and circuses.

Elephants had long been featured in traveling shows that weren’t quite what we mean by “circuses”.  
[http://www.circusweb.com/cwhistory.html](http://www.circusweb.com/cwhistory.html)

> [@](#):
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> After the War of 1812, the old style, permanent equestrian type shows were generally replaced by rolling shows that pitched their tents on village greens. They were direct ancestors of the tented circuses we love today. These were basically all American in design and theory and were started by Old Bet, an African elephant. In 1815 Hackaliah Bailey purchased Old Bet from a sea captain for $1,000.

The circus as we know it today really got underway in 1871.  
[http://www.cprr.org/Museum/This-way-to-the-Egress/](http://www.cprr.org/Museum/This-way-to-the-Egress/)

> [@](#):
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> In 1871 [P.T. Barnum] introduced ‘The Greatest Show on Earth,’ a three ring circus which he transported by rail. Joining with rival James Bailey in 1881, he featured exotic animals, including one he advertised as ‘the last mastodon on earth’ (actually, Jumbo the elephant).

[http://www.barnum-museum.org/html/jumbo.html](http://www.barnum-museum.org/html/jumbo.html)

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> Jumbo, the African bull elephant which came to symbolize the meaning of big, was over 20 years old by the time he gained international attention by joining the P. T. Barnum’s circus in 1882.

So, yeah, it looks like peanuts were becoming a mainstream snack at the same time that elephants were becoming a mainstream entertainment. What more logical than to hand an elephant one of your small, tidy snacks, and what more fascinating than to watch the way he delicately handled it with his trunk?

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**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\
**Post date:** [November 23, 2001, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephants-and-peanuts/94797/3 "2001-11-23T05:40:33Z")

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I thought that George Washington Carver discovered this use for the peanut along with 325 other uses. He was born in 1860, also.