Nellie’s not for the high jump

QUESTION Is the elephant the only mammal that can’t jump?

THIS is one of many myths about the world’s largest land mammal. While it is true that adult elephants can’t jump, three other mammals can’t either — sloths, hippopotamuses and rhinoceroses.

However, unlike elephants, hippos and rhinos can have all four feet off the ground at the same time when they run.

Another myth is that elephants eat peanuts and use their trunks like a straw to drink.

Instead, elephants suck water partway up the trunk and pour it into their mouths.

However, it’s true elephants never forget. They can remember the locations of watering holes hundreds of miles apart and return to them every year.

The popular belief of an elephant graveyard is based on scientific evidence that these creatures mourn their dead.

Richard Perrie, London E12.

QUESTION Which celebrities found fame despite missing schooling due to illness?

FURTHER to the previous answer about polio patients Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Donald Sutherland, future Hollywood star Mia Farrow was also a sufferer. Aged nine, she spent three weeks in an iron lung in Los Angeles General Hospital.

In 2009, pop star Prince revealed his lifelong battle with epilepsy. He had severe seizures as a child, which was one reason why he was bullied at school.

He retreated into his own world and taught himself how to play several musical instruments, a skill that transformed him into a global music star. Mike Price, Rotherham, S. Yorks