Abstract
The phenomenon of musth among Asian elephants has been known since ancient times. Musth is a temporary post-pubertal, reproductive phenomenon commonly observed in the healthy male Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) both in the wild and in captivity. However, the treatment of musth bulls in Asia has remained almost unchanged. The traditional way of dealing with musth bulls involves restraining the animals by tethering them to trees and reducing the food intake so as to weaken them, with the assumption that they would drop out of musth faster. But such methods can cause severe wounds on the legs from the ropes used to tie the animals, and make the bulls more aggressive and traumatic, thereby posing a serious danger to their keepers or mahouts. The alternative method described in the paper provides a strong, safe, and secure tool for the management of musth bulls in captivity. The method not only assures the safety of the bulls but ensures that of the mahouts as well. Being a predominantly Buddhist country, Sri Lanka can lead the way in promoting the bull pen as an alternative tool in the management of bulls in musth, while assuring the utmost safety of their keepers. Key words: musth, Asian elephant, mahouts, bull pen, Elephas maximus DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/cjsbs.v40i1.3404 CJSBS 2011; 40(1): 25-32
Highlights
The phenomenon of musth in Asian and copious discharge of a thick, pungent elephants was known since ancient times, long smelling tar-like oily fluid from the temporal before it was recognized among African glands, which stains much of the lower part of elephants
Once the musth was over, the animal came out of the bull pen in good condition, without a single wound or abrasion. This experiment underlines the importance of the bull pen as an alternative method of managing bull elephants in musth without a risk to both mahout and its keeper
The traditional method of dealing with musth bulls in Sri Lanka relies on tethering them to trees and reducing their food intake
Summary
The phenomenon of musth in Asian and copious discharge of a thick, pungent elephants was known since ancient times, long smelling tar-like oily fluid from the temporal before it was recognized among African glands, which stains much of the lower part of elephants. It has been described accurately in the the face. While socially immature bulls emit sweet elephant called Dhanapalaka is hard to control smelling honey-like odours such as esters and when the temples are running with a pungent alcohols to reduce conflict with adult bulls, older sap. Secretions of the temporal gland may be correlated with reproductive activity (Perry, 1953), but it is not a precondition since nonmusth bulls are known to breed successfully in captivity (Carrington, 1958). Short (1966) confirmed that the act of copulation is independent of the secretion of the temporal glands
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