Do Rhinos Put Out Fires?

I actually first heard about this myth on The Simpsons. There was one episode where Marge saves Homer from a rampaging rhino by setting their car on fire. The rhino immediately abandons its attack and puts out the fire. Day is saved.

Funny joke. Thought it was just random humor.

Actually, though, it’s not just a stupid joke. I mean, it is a stupid joke, but, whatever. I found out later that it was really a spoof of two scenes from the excellent 1980 film The Gods Must Be Crazy, a comedy set in the Kalahari Desert of Africa. You can watch them below.

But this just creates further questions. If I got it from The Simpsons, and The Simpsons got it from The Gods Must Be Crazy, where did they get it from? It is a myth, right?

Turns out the myth dates back a ways. And it is a myth. Fire can make a rhino panic, but its first instinct is to run from the fire, not try to fight it. Also, in an interesting twist, although the myth always references African rhinos, the myth doesn’t seem to come from Africa! No native cultures in Africa ever had a story about fire-fighting rhinos.

So why is it there?

It’s actually a weird artifact of colonialism. There are myths about fiery rhinos, but they start over 7000 kilometers way in southeast Asia, near the countries of Malaysia and Myanmar. Now, Africa’s black and white rhinoceroses don’t live in Asia, but those two countries do have their own flavor of rhino, the Sumatran rhinocerous. It is smaller than its African cousins and lives in the jungle, instead of the savannah.

It’s also hairy sometimes. Which looks kind of weird.

Two Sumatran rhinos at the Cincinatti Zoo.

N. J. Van Strien notes in his study of Sumatran rhinos: “Rhinos… are said to be attracted by campfires or smoke. Whenever it sees a fire it runs up and tramples and devours it, causing a lot of damage and panic in the camp (F. Mason 1882).” The locals even have a specific name for these creatures, Badak Api, literally fire rhinos. It’s not known what they do with the fire after they eat it.

Perhaps they breathe it. That’d be scary. Fire-breathing rhinos. Or their horns could be made of fire. Maybe they’d run on propane.

Either way, the European naturalists heard these myths and brought them back to the Western world, accidentally confusing some of the details along the way. Hence fire-eating Asian rhinos became fire-hating African rhinos. Which stuck around long enough to make it to Hollywood.

And, eventually, The Simpsons.

 

Salamander Wool Gathering

“This has no digestive organs, and gets no food but from the fire, in which it constantly renews its scaly skin. The salamander, which renews its scaly skin in the fire, for virtue.” -Leonardo Da Vinci

Nearly everyone who has read a fantasy book is familiar with the salamander. They’ve been featured in Harry Potter, Narnia, and Discworld and can even be found and fought in games like Final Fantasy or World of Warcraft. Members of my generation will recognize Charmander, the Pokemon, as their introduction to this fantasy creature.

Cool kids picked fire-type

But the animal these myths are based upon is a definitively aquatic creature. I mean, come on, it’s an amphibian. Certainly somebody should have pointed this out at some point?

Well, we can start by blaming Pliny the Elder (AD 23-79). Working off natural observations and reports from Aristotle, Pliny wrote that the animal would only appear during exceptionally wet weather, a trait which is true for most amphibians. However, he also included reports that they were so cold of body that they could extinguish any fire with a touch and were so poisonous that, should one curl around a tree, the fruit of that tree would kill any who ate it. While salamanders can produce a milky poisonous sap as a defense mechanism, these abilities are obviously exaggerated. A salamander cannot put out a flame.

However later, in reports from the medieval era, we can see how the connection with fire evolved. People during that time believed that these creatures could be spontaneously generated from flames and that they would die without them. This myth is attributed to the fact that salamanders often hibernate under rotten wood. People would gather and burn fallen logs for fuel; the flames would warm and startle the amphibians, which would rush out of the wood, only to die in the fire. To any onlooker it would seem like many small creatures were appearing and disappearing amongst the coals.

As the belief in alchemy gained a fevered pitch, people abandoned the real world animal for a more idealized creature of elemental fire. Their name was given over to the spirit of popular culture. For instance, fireproof asbestos was once called ‘salamander wool’ and many bestiaries list them alongside dragons as supernatural creatures. It is here where the animal diverges from the legend. And while salamanders continue to confuse historians with their skeletons, inspire science fiction stories, and tempt modern geneticists with the secret to regenerative medicine, we can definitely say they are not the fiery lizards they were once thought to be.

At least until they learn Ember at level 7.

Sources: Bijibou, New World Encyclopedia, Dresden Codak, pokemon.wikia.com, and a healthy dose of Wikipedia