I was wondering about other small animals. Perhaps the elephant in question was just conscientious and didn’t want to make a mess? Also there was a point made in that snopes article (which I can’t seem to cut and paste right now) about elephants being cautious around unrecognized movements, so a mouse or a small dog could cause one to hesitate.
They did run a control with the dungball but no mouse. The elephant was unaffected.
The result they got was certainly startling, but I really can’t accept it until it’s rerun with a normal wild-color mouse (brown, gray, tan, agouti, whatever’s a standard mouse color in elephant country). White mice simply don’t exist in the wild, for the same reason they’re good to film–they’re too conspicuous. For the elephant, finding a white mouse would be as startling as finding a fluorescent orange mouse. “Dunno what’s going on here, but it’s too weird for me. Probably diseased or something. I’m outta here.”
See, now that’s just the type of levity we need to eliminate!
Didn’t see the episode, did they talk to a zookeeper or a mahout? I don’t know about elephants in particular, but large animals may have concerns not readily apparent to the causal observer. For example, giraffes freak out if they encounter shadows or rainspots on pavement. They see it as an uneven surface and won’t walk on it.
Tusk, tusk.
Is anyone else reminded of Temple Grandlin’s story, about her being called to a feedlot that had been shut down for weeks because the cattle wouldn’t walk down the main chute. She showed up, picked up a pint milk bottle that was laying in the dirt, and the lot was back in business.
According to Grandlin, animals tend to learn about the world through association and not through rational, abstract thought. The unknown, things that don’t fit in to their collection of world experiences, can freak the shit out of them. Who knows? From an elephant’s perspective, there may be a perfectly understandable reason why a pile of dung could move from one place to another, but a moving cowpie that leaves a mouse in its wake may be the most bizarre thing that the elephant has seen in his life.
Then again, if I saw a mouse throw someting that far, I might give him a lot of room myself.
Tip the masseuse?
Of course, in Alabama, the Tuscaloosa …
Then you could drive there, and bring one back in the trunk.