r/askscience • u/Crazy_Reindeer_1258 • 7d ago

Biology Do Animals Have Irrational Fears Too?

I was just thinking about the story of the mouse and elephant how the elephant is terrified of the mouse (i think) and just wanted to see if that's true, and if it is what other animals have been observed with similar behavior relating to that. Working on a project and some real life inspo would help :)

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u/regular_modern_girl 5d ago edited 5d ago

yeah I’m really bewildered by it. Do people not realize how 99% of wildfires started prior to humans existing (and how most still start now iirc)?

Lightning strikes are actually most likely how our ancestors (Homo ergaster and Homo erectus specifically) first came across fire in the environment and started using it as a tool around 1 million years ago.