I saw elephants...

Question

I saw elephants with little or no tail eaten by crocodiles.What was eaten: elephants or the tail?

Khoff · Accepted Answer

Grammatically, it means the elephants were eaten. Since this is highly implausible, I think a better sentence would be "I saw elephants whose tails had been (partially or completely) eaten by crocodiles."

Ruthybird · Answer

It seems to me although this sentence is ambiguous, it most likely means the tails were eaten by crocodiles, for several reasons: 1. The phrase "eaten by crocodiles" directly follows the words "little or no tail." I admit that "little or no tail" follows "with," but this is just the way it immediately strikes me.

2. If "eaten by crocodiles" modifies "elephants," it seems to me there wo

2. If "eaten by crocodiles" modifies "elephants," it seems to me there would be a comma after "tail."

3. Most importantly, I went by the image in my mind. It is very hard to imagine an elephant being eaten by a crocodile! because: obviously, the elephant is much too big to be consumed by a crocodile.

There is the fact that elephants are not often found in water, and crocodiles are more likely to be encountered there and not likely to come out of the water to eat elephants. Much easier to imagine crocodiles choosing to eat all or part of a tail.

4. I have never heard of an elephant with "little or no tail," and assume that it means that the crocodile chose to eat little or the whole tail of an elephant.

5. It might be possible for one crocodile to come out of the water to attack a couple of elephants, but unlikely that a whole group of them would be so brave or so stupid. I would think that crocodiles are not in the habit of eating elephants, simply because of their size and tremendous weight. Elephants could stomp on crocodiles.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/tetrapod-zoology/crocodiles-attack-elephants/

6. Curiously though, if you click on the above reference, you'll see a picture of a crocodile attacking an elephant's snout. Since the word used was "eaten," I'd still have a hard time imagining it. Again, that was just the snout, or could conceivably just have been the tail.

7. If you are reading the sentence, it seems to imply two or more crocodiles, because it seems to mean some had no tails and some had little tails (an unusual occurrence for elephants). You might find one or two elephants in water, but less likely a group of them.

8. https://www.ask.com/youtube?q=Are+crocodiles+and+elephants+found+in+the+same+areas%3F&v=ZVAMnirC72c

Here is a video showing a crocodile biting an elephant's trunk. However, as far as I know, there is nothing in history of an elephant actually being eaten by a crocodile, even a group of elephants by a group of crocodiles. It's unusual behavior by the crocodile, plus several elephants could easily trample several crocodiles to death. It is assumed only several of each are implied, or there would be words in the sentence like "herd" and "group." I am having trouble finding the term for a group of crocodiles. "Bevy" comes to mind, but I think that is for geese? Maybe somebody knows these things.

9. Point of interest: https://www.ask.com/youtube?o=0&l=dir&qo=serpSearchTopBox&q=synonym+group+of+crocodiles

Three lions attacking one buffalo, starting with the neck. It is conceivable that one elephant could be attacked in this way by one or more crocodiles, I think.

Enough, already!

Ruthybird · Answer

P.S. The best word I can come up with for a group of crocodiles is "community."

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