Editing Musth (section)

==Behavioral characteristics==
Musth is believed to be linked to [[sexual arousal]] or establishing [[Dominance hierarchy|dominance]].<ref name=Sukumar />{{rp|101}} Wild bulls in musth often produce a characteristic low, pulsating [[elephant communication|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.<ref name="slotow">Rob Slotow, Dave Balfour, and Owen Howison.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080227081853/http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/sgs/afesg/pachy/pdfs/pachy31.pdf#page=17 "Killing of black and white rhinoceroses by African elephants in Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park, South Africa"], ''Pachyderm'' 31 (July–December, 2001):14–20. Accessed 14 September 2007.</ref><ref name="siebert">{{Cite web |last=Siebert |first=Charles |date=2006-10-08 |title=An Elephant Crackup? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08elephant.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5070&en=ccc63627f454863c&ex=1167282000 |access-date=2007-06-16 |website=New York Times Magazine}}</ref>

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 in what is often called "herd infighting").<ref name="abc">{{Cite news |date=2010-04-28 |title=Elephant kills 12 females over spurned advances |url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-04-28/elephant-kills-12-females-over-spurned-advances/414282 |access-date=2024-04-12 |work=ABC News |language=en-AU}}</ref>

Between 1991-2001, young bull [[rogue elephant]]s killed 63 [[rhinoceros|rhinos of both genders]] (58 [[White rhinoceros|endangered white rhino]]s and 5 rare black rhinos) in two [[South Africa]]n national parks ([[Hluhluwe–Imfolozi Park|Hluhluwe–Imfolozi]] and [[Pilanesberg National Park|Pilanesberg]]). This was ultimately attributed to an aberrant form of musth. After being rebuffed by older female elephants, they went after rhinos, killing them after raping some. Three young elephant bulls were shot which temporarily ended the killings.<ref>[https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19941023/1937416/a-murder-mystery-why-were-elephants-slaughtering-rhinos----lack-of-adult-role-models-gets-the-blame A Murder Mystery: Why Were Elephants Slaughtering Rhinos?], seattletimes.com. Accessed 5 November 2024.</ref> Some scientists opined this was an example of young male elephants permanently changed by the trauma of witnessing their breeding herds culled due to overcrowding in other South African parks. These young bulls 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.<ref>[https://africageographic.com/stories/kruger-cull-88-elephants-says-hunter-ron-thomson/ Kruger should cull 88% of its elephants, says hunter Ron Thomson], africageographic.com. Accessed 5 November 2024.</ref><ref>[https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1742-9994-10-62#:~:text=However%2C%20extremely%20disruptive%20events%2C%20including,individual's%20close%20social%20bonds%20and Effects of social disruption in elephants persist decades after culling], frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com. 23 October 2013. Accessed 5 September 2024.</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08elephant.html "An Elephant Crackup?"], nytimes.com. 8 October 2006. Accessed 5 November 2024.</ref><ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/elephants-never-forget-when-you-slaughter-their-family-180947583/ "Elephants Never Forget When You Slaughter Their Family"], smithsonianmag.com. November 6, 2013.</ref><ref>[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-delinquents/ "60 Minutes II: The Delinquents"], cbsnews.com, August 22, 2000. Accessed September 5, 2024.</ref>

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,<ref name="newrepublic">{{Cite news |date=June 1996 |title=The Dangers of Elephant Relocation |url=https://newrepublic.com/article/86460/orphan-elephant-white-rhino-mortality-study |access-date=2023-12-05 |work=The New Republic |pages=569 |volume=381 |issue=6583 |doi=10.1038/381569b0 |issn=0028-6583}}</ref> 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 [[PTSD|post-traumatic stress disorder]] experienced by humans following extremely traumatic events" due to the pachyderms' intelligence, strong emotional family attachments, and prodigious memories.<ref>[https://frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1742-9994-10-62#:~:text=However%2C%20extremely%20disruptive%20events%2C%20including,individual's%20close%20social%20bonds%20and Effects of social disruption in elephants persist decades after culling], frontiersinzoology.biomedcentral.com. 23 October 2013. Accessed September 5, 2024.</ref><ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08elephant.html "An Elephant Crackup?"], nytimes.com. October 8, 2006. Accessed September 5, 2024.</ref><ref>[https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/elephants-never-forget-when-you-slaughter-their-family-180947583/ "Elephants Never Forget When You Slaughter Their Family"], smithsonianmag.com. 6 November 2013.</ref><ref>[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-delinquents/ "60 Minutes II: The Delinquents"], cbsnews.com, 22 August  2000. Accessed 5 November 2024.</ref>

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.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2013/12/16/251672253/why-we-need-grandpas-and-grandmas-part-1#:~:text=The%20New%20York%20Times%20reported,on%20people%20in%20safari%20vehicles.%22 "Why we need grandpas and grandmas, part I], npr.org. Accessed 5 September 2024.</ref>

South African ecologist and ranger [[Gus van Dyk]], who thought of the idea of reintroducing older males into Pilanesberg to prevent younger males from entering musth, noted that no further rhinoceros killings were observed.<ref name="slotow" /><ref name="siebert" /><ref>Bruce Page, Joyce Poole, Adam Klocke, Gus van Dyk, and Rob Slotow. [https://www.academia.edu/1382885/Older_bull_elephants_control_young_males "Older Bull Elephants Control Young Males"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210525172714/https://www.academia.edu/1382885/Older_bull_elephants_control_young_males |date=2021-05-25 }} ''Nature'' 408 (23 November 2000). Accessed 19 July 2019.</ref><ref name="BBCearth">{{Cite news |title=Teenage elephants need a father figure |url=https://www.bbcearth.com/news/teenage-elephants-need-a-father-figure |access-date=December 5, 2023 |work=BBC}}</ref>

===Management===
[[File:മദപ്പാടിൽ നിൽക്കുന്ന ആന.JPG|thumb|An elephant in musth trying to break his chain]]
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.<ref name=Ananth>[https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274501896_Musth_in_Elephants Musth in Elephants], by Deepa Ananth; published April 2000 in ''Zoos' Print Journal'' 15(5):259-262; DOI:10.11609/JoTT.ZPJ.15.5.259-62</ref><ref name=Xylazine>Parag Nigam, Samir Sinha, Pradeep Malik, and Sushant Chowdhary [https://www.zoosprint.zooreach.org/index.php/zpj/article/view/6522/5937 MANAGING ELEPHANT IN MUSTH: A CASE REPORT], ''Zoos' Print Journal'' 21(5):  2265-2266 (May 2006).</ref> Zoos keeping adult male elephants need strong, purpose-built enclosures to isolate males during their musth.