Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 December 1892 — An Elephant's Fear of a Mouse. [ARTICLE]

An Elephant's Fear of a Mouse.

One of the keepers of the Zoo, whose experience with the larger animals has been quite varied, in speaking of the elephant, said: *While it has no fear of the powerful Bengal tiger or the Numidian lion, at the first sight of the most diminutive creature it will shrink from it and tremble all over from the most abject fear. I remember well, years ago, one of the largest and most brutal elephants we had in the Zoological Garden, while feeding one day in its quarters, discovered a mouse which was lunching in a corner on some of the provender, and the scare it gave to the elephant and the way it shook and carried on for a few minutes, was sight to look at. The mouse seemed entirely composed in the presence of such a mastodon, and satisfied its appetite fully before retiring. The elephant gave its liliputian visitor a wide berth during its stay —Philadelphia Press.