Elephants are not afraid of mice. They have never been afraid of mice, and probably won't develop a fear to them in the foreseeable future. But we believe that they do? Where did this myth come from, and why are we so willing to believe it? After all, what business does a large creature like an elephant have to fear from a minuscule mouse?

    The popularity of the myth comes from the fact that mice have startled elephants in the past. Our immediate reaction was to paint the comical picture of a lumbering elephant running from a little mouse. The myth is based on anecdotal evidence that disregards the many times that elephants have shown no fear of mice as well as the times they have been startled by other animals. Whether there was one specific event that started the myth we do not know as the origins of the myth have been lost to us. It has been popularized over the years by movies like Dumbo, but has been refuted by several sources, most notably by Myth Busters.

    In the past, people thought elephants were afraid of mice because they did not want the mice to crawl up their trunks. We now realize that this idea is as ridiculous as it sounds. Elephants do not worry about things crawling up their nose. Instead, they act upon instinct. It was probably the quick, unidentifiable sound that the mouse was making that caused the elephant to sense danger. Just about all creatures fear this simple thing: the unknown. The elephant is no exception. When the elephant cannot identify the sounds coming it hears, its instincts tell it that there is the possibility of danger, and so it will react accordingly.

    So how do we know that elephants are not afraid of mice in particular? A simple experiment will suffice to demonstrate. A random sample of elephants can be taken, and mice can be brought up to the elephants. A not so random sample would probably work just as well, such as that done by the Barnum and Bailey circus to their flock of elephants. The result of the experiment was that the elephants simply ignored the mice. The presence of the rodents had absolutely no effect on the temperament of the elephants.

    The lesson we can take from this? Don't necessarily believe what you are told. It would never make sense for a creature so large to fear a creature so small that causes it no physical threat. On an intuitive level, we are willing to believe this myth because we know human beings are afraid of bugs. But in the animal kingdom, things are much different. Elephants are not as irrational as we are. They fear only what they should indeed fear
 
    大象不怕小老鼠。它們從來就沒有怕過，在可預(yù)見的未來也不大可能會。但我們怎么會確信它們害怕老鼠呢？這個傳說是哪兒來的，我們又為什么愿意相信它是真的呢？說到底，一個像大象這樣的大家伙，究竟為什么要害怕像小老鼠這樣一個小不點兒呢？

    關(guān)于“大象怕老鼠”傳說的由來，流行的說法是因為在過去小老鼠驚嚇到了大象。我們的第一反應(yīng)，應(yīng)該是在腦海中浮現(xiàn)出一幅圖畫，上面有一只笨重的大象被一只小老鼠追著跑。雖然大象是被其它動物驚嚇過，但是這個有趣的傳說還是忽略了一個事實，那就是大象從來沒有對老鼠表現(xiàn)出過恐懼。究竟是不是有那么一次，“怕老鼠”的事真的發(fā)生了，所以才有了“怕老鼠”這個傳說，我們也不知道，因為傳說的來源我們也搞不清楚了。“大象怕老鼠”的說法經(jīng)過《小飛象（Dumbo）》等等電影的傳播，變得越來越流行，但同時也被許多證據(jù)所批駁，其中最有名的證據(jù)來自電視節(jié)目《Myth Busters》。

    過去人們之所以認為大象害怕老鼠，是因為怕老鼠會順著它們的長鼻子爬上來。現(xiàn)在我們知道了，這個想法聽起來確實挺滑稽的。大象不怕什么東西會爬進它們的鼻子里，它們只憑著本能做出反應(yīng)。倒是老鼠發(fā)出的急促而又無法辨認的聲音，很可能讓大象覺得危險。所有的生物都害怕一樣?xùn)|西：未知的事物。大象也不例外。當大象辨認不出它聽到的不斷接近的聲響時，它的本能就會告訴它：可能有危險。于是它就會做出相應(yīng)的反應(yīng)。

    那么，我們又是怎么知道大象尤其不怕老鼠呢？一個簡單的實驗就足以證明了。隨機找一只大象，再把老鼠放在大象面前。不是隨機找的大象也行，因為Barnum和Bailey馬戲團用他們的一群大象也做過類似實驗。實驗的結(jié)果是，大象根本就把老鼠當成空氣，也就是說，老鼠的存在壓根不會影響大象的心情。

    這個破解傳說的過程又教會了我們什么呢？說到底也就是：不要不加考慮地相信別人告訴你的一切。說一個這么大的動物會害怕另一個對它構(gòu)不成任何身體上的威脅的小動物，本來就是無稽之談。從直覺上講，我們愿意相信這種傳說，因為我們知道人害怕小蟲子。但在動物的王國里，事情就大不一樣了。大象不像我們這樣荒唐，它們只害怕它們真正害怕的