Elephant Musth - A new kinder way to treat bull elephants and ease their suffering

by Sangduen Chailert - 17 September 2003

Boon khum on Musk

Earlier this month Boonkhum, normally preferring to stay alone and kept himself to himself, walked over to Max and Lilly. He tried to fight with Max and tried to mate with Siam, and another female but all the herd seemed so afraid of him. We found that both sides of his face swollen and black oil seeping from the small holes by his temple. He is in the early stages of Musth. We had to take him away from the herd and put him beside the river in a quite place. Boonkhum has been on musth before he moved to stay with us. At this time he worked hauling logs as a timber elephant. The musth lasted two months and he nearly died from it.

In Thailand, and most of Asia, when elephants are in musth their owners will chain them up to a tree. They stop feeding them and give very little to drink as they want the elephant to lose power and weaken physically. The owners are very scared of the bull at that time and will use a very short chain to secure them to a tree in a remote location.

We believe that elephants need more help and understanding from humans during this time. They can be chained but with a chain that is not too short. Leave them stay beside the river, give them food, but change the food from the grass and other foliage to light food such as papaya, watermelon, banana and tamarind to help their digestion. During musth they are easily constipation and, because of the short chain they get no exercise. This contributes to constipation which makes their emotional state much worse.

Boon Khum enjoying a soothing swim

We decided treated Boonkhum in a different way. His mahout Pat was very good to him and stayed constantly by his side talking with and calming him down. He also took Boonkhum for walks, swam and bathed him three times a day. He carefully cleaned the oil that trickled down Boonkhum's face when he took Boonkhum down to the river. We can see in Boonkhum eyes that he deeply appreciated the attention and kindness Pat offered him. After swimming Boonkhum scrubs himself with tree branches. The oil seeps out more and more. We watch very quietly researching his behaviour.

Thanks for Pat for working so hard and taking such good care of Boonkhum. This time musth lasted only two weeks before he is back to normal and his is ready to rejoin the herd.

We hope our new way to treat bull elephants on musth can be useful to others. We will be glad to help or suggest these remedies to anyone in charge of bull elephant. them in the right way.

All we have done is illustrate the gentleness of this magnificent creature

Boon Khum during his period
in musth

Related:

Booh khum's bio