Musth Mission

Musth is a period that happens only in male elephants where testosterone levels increase up to 50 times the normal range. It is approximately once a year and it can last from a few weeks up to several months! Normally, when bull elephants are going into musth, they are moved far away in the forest since they can be very aggressive and dangerous to both elephants and people.

So when a mahout called me for assistance, I knew it meant that either the elephant broke its chains and was roaming free in the jungle or that they worked the elephant until the last moment and now they could not approach him. The idea of dealing with an elephant out of control was definitely at the top of my list, FUN!

After a 4-hour drive I got to a little hut along the road where the elephant owner and four other people were waiting for me (I was not really sure who the other four were but they came along for the show). I made them signed a liability contract and went on a 1-hour tak-tak ride (quite fun actually) through the forest to where the elephant was.

On the tak tak

We found the bull next to a river and, although it did not show any signs of being in musth on that precise day (temporal glands secretion, urine dribbling, strong odor, charging at everything that moves), he was in fact not listening to any of the mahout’s commands. At this point I realized that the mahout was too scared to try to approach him so I decided to tranquilize him to be able to place the appropriate chains on him.

Elephant across the river

I prepared the darts and, despite my insistence on letting me try, the government official did the shooting. The best part of the day was explaining (in my best Lao) how the protrusion of the penis and the relaxation of the trunk were evidence of sedation. Even after my explanation, they did not want to approach the elephant since his eyes were still open and the ears quietly flapping – I guess they expected the elephant to completely pass out.

Government official getting ready to shoot

Everything worked out pretty smoothly in the end: The elephant was securely chained and everyone very happy.

Karla Nova, DVM