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Teeny, Tiny, Bite-Size Elephants!? (Thai "Water Elephants")

Well, if what you saw wasn't a foetus, or a baby...

*http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s24742.htm

...and it wasn't fiction...

*Story: The Smallest Elephant In The World (1977)
Description: A tiny, lost elephant, the size of a house cat, is found by a young boy and taken home as a pet. Arnold's mother immediately delivers him to the circus. There, the little elephant becomes part of an act with Hilo, the World's Smallest Man, and lives with Hilo in his little circus trailer.

...and it wasn't either a small mammoth, or elephas falconeri...
...or stone.

Then maybe it was a hoax. A joke. Along the lines of the bonsai kitten ULs.

Why don't you go to your university library and ask them? Or call your local zoo. Or even ask the same question on a zoology message board.

:)
 
hachihyaku said:
Anyone remember this?
There was a very not-well-publicized thing a few years back about a collection of miniature, petrified elephants. They could fit in your hand. They have been Xrayed and have bones in them. ...
These ARE NOT pygmy elephants. Those are like 6 feet tall. These are, literally, two inches tall. ...
(Actually, it might have been on a "Beyond Bizarre" show awhile back...)
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A segment or story about tiny mummified elephants has been cited as one of the topics addressed on the Beyond Bizarre TV series that ran from 1997 to 2000 on the Discovery Channel.
Beyond Bizarre was originally a Discovery Channel special that eventually became a series that ran from 1997-2000. It was hosted by famed actor Jay Robinson. His voice is iconic. The series was narrated by Robinson and each episode had a few segments about the occult, paranormal, and just strange and bizarre. The series was well received. Segments included things from mummified tiny elephants to moving rocks to holes purposely drilled into heads to ghosts and zombies. While some of these stories have since been proven false, the series itself is fun to watch and will leave you questioning what you thought you knew about life.
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(emphasis added)
SOURCE: https://aminoapps.com/c/paranormal/page/item/beyond-bizarre/bNbl_zeDfnI8Vjp50jg4R6xXN4JaBYbaGmn

The key word here is "mummified." The tiny alleged elephants weren't petrified (i.e., they weren't fossils).
 
In 2004 a query about such tiny elephants was posted on the Unexplained Mysteries message board. The original query was based on something seen on TV (almost certainly the Beyond Bizarre series noted above). The most substantive responses were:
It is an urban legond. The tiny bodys are fake and have already been debunked.
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I remember this one. They are actually mummified shrews that people have doctored. They split the lower jaw in two to simulate tusks. Some people sell them as souvenirs...
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The tiny elephants story appeared on the show "Beyond Bizzare" and Ripleys believe it or not". Basically, the story goes that 100 years ago or so, there lived a species of tiny elephants that lived primarily in the water. Merchants used to trade them dead and alive in the street markets. Some were mummified and a few examples were shown on the show. They were being subjected to MRI's and other high tech scientific investigation but there was no scientific proof stated on the show that they ever existed. It looks real to me though, they even had little tusks, aww. However, these tusks were suppossed to be poisonous (gasp!)
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SOURCE: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/topic/18294-mysterious-tiny-elephant/
 
Further investigation revealed the OP was referring to the legendary "Thai water elephant"* - summarized in this quotation from a 2010 post on the Documenting Reality message board:
... snooping around the web I seem to have found out that this creature falls into the same category as the "jackolope:" a quite normal creature in life that has been altered by taxidermy to be something quite unusual in death. In the case of the jackolope, a deceased rabbit is altered by giving it the antlers of a deer.

In the case of the "Thai Water Elephant" it sounds like the perpetrators have started with a shrew. A shrew is a small mouse-like mammal with a long pointed snout, making it already vaguely elephant shaped. The taxidermist does his work removing and adding bones and flesh in different places (for example, apparently the front legs bones below the knees are removed and shaped into the tusks). In the end the hoaxer has something that looks like a tiny elephant. These can then be sold in the tourist trade as novelties. Although several have shown up on Ebay with prices running in the thousands, apparently they can be acquired from street vendors in Burma for a reasonable price.

The story of the water elephant goes back at least to the 1800's. It is said that they spend their lives in the water and that their tusks carry venom that can kill a man (this part of the story might have some basis in fact as the shrew is one of the few mammal that are poisonous). Only experienced hunters are able to capture them, which is why they are so rare and expensive (at least that is how the story is told by the curiosity shop owner that wishes to sell you one). It is not clear whether the story of a water elephant has any place in traditional folklore, or if it was simply invented after the first hoaxer discovered he could turn a dead, worthless shrew into a rare, valuable water elephant and need a story to go along with it.
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SOURCE: https://www.documentingreality.com/forum/f240/strange-thai-water-elephant-64617/

ORIGINAL SOURCE FOR THE QUOTE: http://www.unmuseum.org/askcurarch.htm

* NOTE: Not to be confused with the tapir-like "water elephant" reported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
 
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This 2006 MentalFloss article describes the "Thai water elephant" in a tongue-in-cheek manner. The accompanying photo may or may not represent imagery that appeared in the Beyond Bizarre program.

thaiwaterelephant-MF.jpg

Behold the fearsome Thai water elephant

The creature at left is an elusive animal first discovered in the 1800s. Although little is known of this "Thai water elephant's" behavior, it is said that its tusks carry deadly venom, and that only experienced hunters are able to capture them in their watery habitats, which is why they are so rare and expensive. Although they sometimes go for thousands on eBay, we are pleased to offer you -- today and today only! -- your very own taxidermied Thai water elephant as a free bonus for taking us up on our other fabulous offer of the day, which is some beachfront property in Kansas.

I ran across the Thai water elephant at the Museum of Unnatural Mystery while researching Piltdown last week. It seems the creature is a cousin of the jackalope:

A shrew is a small mouse-like mammal with a long pointed snout, making it already vaguely elephant shaped. The taxidermist does his work removing and adding bones and flesh in different places (for example, apparently the front leg bones below the knees are removed and shaped into the tusks). ... It is not clear whether the story of a water elephant has any place in traditional folklore, or if it was simply invented after the first hoaxer discovered he could turn a dead, worthless shrew into a rare, valuable water elephant and need a story to go along with it. ...​
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SOURCE: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/14707/behold-fearsome-thai-water-elephant
 
This (apparently Burmese) news item from 2003 describes the discovery of a "water elephant" carcass in 2003.
The Nation
Dead 'water elephant' turns up in Mae Sot
Published on May 2, 2003

The carcass of a rare small animal similar in appearance to an elephant has been discovered in the possession of a resident of Mae Sot district, Tak province.

The owner, Direk Siangthaen, 28, a restaurant operator in Mae Sot district, said he got the carcass of the miniature animal, known to locals as a "water elephant", from Burma. The carcass, which is about 7.5cm tall and 12.5 cm wide, weighs about 300 grams.

Locals in Tak believe the water elephant is a rare creature bestowed with supernatural powers. Sala Chuainoo, a 50-year-old elephant keeper, said when he was very young his parents told him that an elephant running amok would never hurt a person carrying the tusk of a water elephant, and those carrying such a tusk would be able to quickly calm it.

He was told that water elephants could be found in muddy water on high mountains. Mae Jan Village in Tak's Umphang district used to be a water elephant habitat, he said.

Direk said he got the water elephant from a Burmese villager living opposite Mae Sot. The man told him he had caught the miniature elephant in a pond high in the mountains. The elephant only lived seven days after being caught.

"I believe it really is a water elephant, because every part of the animal is similar to a normal elephant. And I was also told that when it was alive its bellows were similar to those of an elephant," he said.

Direk took the carcass to Pha Woh Hospital in Mae Sot district and had the carcass x-rayed. About a hundred people thronged around him when they saw what he was carrying.

The x-rays showed that the water elephant to have a bone structure similar to that of a full-sized elephant, he said.

But he is worried somebody might try to steal the carcass from him, and so has decided not to keep the carcass at home.
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SOURCE: Quoted In: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/topic/3573-thai-water-elephants/
 
In 2005 Unexplained Mysteries message board member Drwhomo posted this first-person report ...
In regards to the Thai water elephant, I think I might be able to help out. I travel quite a bit and am a collector of sideshow gaffs.

The tradition of the Thai Water Elephants goes back to the 1800s. It died out after the turn of that century but for whatever reason seems to have bubbled back into existance.

The myth goes that deep in the low land water ways (or high in the mountainous rivers) there exist packs of tiny elephants that spend their entire life paddling in the water. They are no more than three to four inches tall, and are said to be legendary for their poisonous tusks, which are said to still be filled with enough venom to kill a man even long after the little animals death. Only experienced hunters are able to sneak up on the mini-elephants in the wild, as only their trunks are visible poking above the waters surface. Unwarry travelers that happen across the paths of these mini-beasts usually die, therefore no one who stumbles across them lives to tell the tail. Additionally, the little elephants are notoriously hard to maintain in captivity and usually die within a few hours or days. From time to time the tiny mummified remains of these creatures surface in markets and obscure shops.

The truth behind the myth is that these curious little mummys are sold to tourists by clever taxidermists. They are in fact, a regional mouse whos little corpse has been quickly and ingeniusly altered after its death to give the appearence of an elephant. The front legs are deboned at the knee and two of the larger bones from these areas are then sharpened and fashioned as tusks. The poisonous little dumbos are then dried and sold as curiousities by Burma traders and hoaxsters.

I have one. He is proudly displayed in my cabinet of curiousities between my Jenny Hanover, and a rather moth-eaten FeeJee Mermaid.

Hope this helps (sorry if I ruined the sense of wonder for anyone)
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SOURCE: https://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/forum/topic/3573-thai-water-elephants/
 
Another Unexplained Mysteries message board member (jacksonjeyerr) also reported having one of these "water elephants" in his possession, and he provided photos. I managed to locate and salvage two of these pics.

WaterElephant-A.jpg

WaterElephant-B.jpg
 
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How come they're all dead and dried up?
 
Mythopoeika said:
How come they're all dead and dried up?
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As far as I've been able to ascertain, the "Thai water elephants" exist only as taxidermy follies marketed to foreign visitors along with a contrived back story that seems to have originated in the 19th century.
 
EnolaGaia said:
As far as I've been able to ascertain, the "Thai water elephants" exist only as taxidermy follies marketed to foreign visitors along with a contrived back story that seems to have originated in the 19th century.
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Made from animal parts and then deep fried to give them that crispy look?
 
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