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Condition in male elephants From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Musth or must (from Persian, lit. 'intoxicated') is a periodic condition in bull (male) elephants characterized by aggressive behavior and accompanied by a large rise in reproductive hormones. It has been known in Asian elephants for 3000 years but was only described in African elephants in 1981. There is evidence that similar behaviour occurred in extinct proboscideans like gomphotheres and mastodons.
Elephants often discharge a thick, tar-like secretion called temporin from the temporal gland during musth. Behavioral management for captive bull elephants in musth includes physical restraint and a starvation diet for several days to a week.
Musth comes from an Urdu term for intoxication;[1]: 101 in Persian it means lit. 'intoxicated'.[2]
Musth has been known in Asian elephants for 3000 years (described in the Rigveda 1500–1000 B.C.) but was recognized in African elephants only in the late twentieth century.[1]: 101
In 1975, scientists Joyce Poole and Cynthia Moss were working in Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Poole noticed a period of heightened reproductive activity and aggression in male African elephants. She began documenting and describing the physical and behavioral characteristics and temporal (time-related) dynamics among individual males. This led to scientifically identifying musth in African elephants.[3]
Musth is also suggested to have occurred in mammoths, given the testosterone histories from their tusks.[4] Musth-like behaviour is also suggested to have occurred in South American gomphotheres[5] and North American mastodons.[6]
Musth differs from rut in that musth most often takes place in winter, whereas the female elephant's estrus cycle is not seasonally linked.[7]
Elephants in musth often discharge a thick tar-like secretion called temporin from the temporal gland located on the temporal sides of the head. Temporin contains proteins, lipids (including cholesterol), phenol and 4-methyl phenol,[8][9] cresols and sesquiterpenes (notably farnesol and its derivatives).[1]: 155 Secretions and urine collected from zoo elephants have been shown to contain elevated levels of various highly odorous ketones and aldehydes.[citation needed]
Testosterone levels in an elephant in musth can be on average 60 times greater than in the same elephant at other times (in specific individuals these testosterone levels can even reach as much as 140 times the normal).[10] Whether this hormonal surge is the sole cause of musth or merely a contributing factor is unknown.[citation needed]
Musth is believed to be linked to sexual arousal or establishing dominance,[1]: 101 Wild bulls in musth often produce a characteristic low, pulsating rumbling noise known as "musth rumble" which other elephants can hear from miles away. The rumble has been shown to prompt not only attraction in the form of reply vocalizations from cows in heat, but also silent avoidance behavior from other bulls, particularly juveniles and non-receptive females, suggesting an evolutionary benefit to advertising the musth state.[11][12]
A bull elephant in musth, wild or otherwise, is extremely dangerous to humans, other elephants, and other species. Bull elephants in musth have killed keepers/mahouts, as well as other bull elephants, female elephants, and calves (the last usually inadvertently or accidentally).[13]
In the 1990s, an episode of young bull rogue elephants, who had survived culls and translocation, raped and gored female rhinos to death without provocation in two South African national parks was attributed to an aberrant form of musth. After being rebuffed by older female elephants, they went after the female white rhinos, an endangered species, the largest available pachyderm in the neighborhood, raping and killing them. Estimates of the dead rhinos ranged from 36 to 63. Of the 15-18 young bull elephants in the control group, three were reportedly shot. Some scientists opined that this was an example of young male elephants permanently changed by the trauma of witnessing their breeding herds culled due to overcrowding. The survivors had been spared themselves due to their age and size although herd culls are properly done in entirety, i.e. leaving no survivors to suffer the equivalents of PTSD, survivor guilt, and other disorders or traumas later in life which can then create or exacerbate human-elephant conflicts or other forms of violence, according to Ron Thomson, a late 20th-century Zimbabwe game warden and Parks Board veteran.[14][15][16][17][18] In the absence of older males whose presence inhibits musth in smaller younger bulls, these adolescent bulls had reached puberty (musth) prematurely which they could not control,[19] resulting in the "warped behavior of animals who have lost their elders, and who are now flailing in a diminished, disarranged world." It is established that functionally important decision-making abilities may be significantly altered by disruption of the natural structure of kin-based social relationships and that violent disruption "appears capable of driving aberrant behaviours in social animals that are akin to the post-traumatic stress disorder experienced by humans following extremely traumatic events" due to the pachyderms' advanced intelligence, sentience, intense family relationships, and prodigious memories.[20][21][22][23]
Another interrelated but more generalized theory of why the young elephants went wild was that, owing to culls and herd fragmentation, there were no older elephants to teach and discipline them.[24]
South African ecologist and ranger Gus van Dyk, who thought of the idea of reintroducing older males into the parks to prevent younger males from entering musth, noted that no further rhinoceros killings were observed.[11][12][25][26]
In Sri Lanka and India, domesticated Asian elephants in musth are traditionally tied to a strong tree and denied food and water or put on a starvation diet from several days to a week which shortens the duration of the musth, typically to five to eight days. Sedatives, like xylazine, are also sometimes used.[27][28] Zoos keeping adult male elephants need strong, purpose-built enclosures to isolate males during their musth, which greatly complicates attempts to breed elephants in zoos.
It was sweet to hear of your victories and fame and I came here desiring to see you. I came with my big family, passing few mountains where noble, young male elephants with coarse hair
and swaying walks have musth flowing from their
cheek glands and elephant mothers with calves wave wild jasmine twigs, chasing striped bees that swarm on the sweet musth.[30]
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