Elephant v. Mouse.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue VIII, 24 August 1901, Page 366

Elephant v. Mouse.

A FIGHT TO A FINISH IN A CIRCUS. Why is the gentle elephant afraid of the fierce and bloodthirsty mouse? Various theories have been mooted to account for the well-known natural antipathy of the huge pachyderm for the tiny grey creature. Some scientists say that the very smallness of the mouse is the cause of the elephant’s terror —my lord being afraid that the mouse will run up his trunk, with results that could not fail to be disastrous. On the other hand, some trainers say that it is because mice inflict painful wounds on elephants’ legs. You know, a healthy elephant’s skin is as likely as not to be half an inch thick. An industrious mouse, with an appetite for live elephant cuticle. can nibble a deep hole in it without his victim becoming aware of it until the excavation reaches to the quick. Sores in a half-inch skin take a year or two to heal, so the elephant is no more to be blamed for his fear of a mouse from that point of view than a man is for his rear of a wasp. Be that as it may, the fact that the elephant is really afraid of Master Mouse was practically attested at a circus the other day in the presence of a very interested audience, ineluding a contingent of reporters. The mouse approached the arena in his own trap —which is to say, the one in which he was caught. The weights were somewhat unequal—the mouse weighing less than two ounces, while his antagonist scaled near a ton. When the tiny mouse skipped nimbly into the ring, the elephant showed his appreciation of his presence by sticking out his ears at right angles, raising his tail and keeping it as rigid as a cross-bar. After making several short rushes in different directions, the mouse retired into a corner and pensively combed his whiskers. All the time the elephant had never taken his eyes off the tiny thing, and displayed his agitation by waving his broad, flapping ears. Presently he backed slowly away from the mouse, which, in the meantime, was vainly seeking for an avenue of escape. Presently he darted straight between the elephant’s forelegs, cleverly eseaping a vicious blow aimed with the trunk of his huge opponent. These tactics roused his elephantship to frenzy. Trumpeting furiously, he stamped about with his ponderous feet, which the mouse missed by a series of swift darts hither and thither. The elephant kept his hindquarters jammed against the wall so as to avoid an attack tn the rear. In order to prevent the mouse from repeating his tactics of rushing between his forelegs Brer Elephant kept them close together, swinging his trunk the while and waiting for a. chance to land a knock-out blow. The end came very suddenly. In one of his lightning rushes the mouse met the elephant’s huge forefoot, and the impact lifted him several feet into the air. When the wee thing landed again his big antagonist was waiting for him. and promptly stamped him out of existence. Even after the first blow had fallen, and poor Master Mouse was flatter than a pancake, the elephant in a sort of frenzy continued to trample on the tiny corpse. And that is the story of the first recorded fight between a mouse and an elephant.