The Elephant and Mice episode was so wild, because if I remember correctly, the elephant didn't act afraid of the mouse, it acted afraid it would step on and harm the mouse; as if the elephant had a basic understanding and concern for the wellbeing of another creature conspicuously lacking in many human beasts
Yep. Elephants are wonderfully kind creatures. With my very limited understanding of elephant body language, it didn't look like an 'oh no, im scared' it was more 'oh hey little guy, didn't see ya there. ill get outta your way.'
Animal behavior can be difficult to interpret (and even when descriptions come from experts, I often find myself asking "yeah, but how do we really know that?"), but this looks very close to being like someone who's known for lighthearted pranks.
I WANT to believe this but I've seen too many elephant videos that turned out to be just elephants trained to do a quirky thing for tourists and there's someone off camera subtly directing them.
It's amazing how intelligent and emotionally mature elephants are. It's not wonder why people were willing to believe that "Elephants have a moon religion!" line for so long, it seems believable with how often elephants seem to act like chonky humans with a trunk instead of arms.