Musth Makhna & Dirty Baby

Bansbari Range, Manas National Park

Elephants were not on my to do list for Manas a couple of months ago when I was there. We see them enough and not always positively given the conflict over territory here in Guwahati. That and also the fact that they aren’t exotic enough due to proximity. I mean we’re basically neighbours with Elephants with a reserve where all this conflict is seen being right next to my work. So that being how it is, I’d asked the boys to stay off the Elephant tracks and happily so cause I was after Primates, the roads inside Manas are narrow, the forest was the thickest I’ve seen and there was a recent video doing rounds of people being chased by an Elephant in Manas. My plan was to maximise on Primate possibility and minimise being turned over by a huge Bull with 6 foot tusks who’d just need 2 steps to reach me cause he’s in Musth.

Musth for male Elephants is that period of the year when his hormones go into overdrive. It happens once a year, at the same time and can last from a few days to a few months together. Indian texts going back to the Rig Ved mention this period and it’s characterised by heightened aggression, unpredictable behaviour and lots of mating. They make a rumbling sound during this period and that along with the clearly visible leaking tar like liquid from their foreheads is signal enough for me to start booking in the opposite direction given what happened during “Mother Nature’s Wedding Gift”. That huge Bull was evidently leaking from his forehead and taught me what I needed to learn about Elephant bulls with leaky foreheads. The tar like liquid is secreted from their temporal glands and is called temporin. Their temporal glands can be traced back to Mammoths as can the presence of the Musth period for Mammoths as well. See my guy in Pics : 1 – 6 ? He’s leaking from the forehead and has no tusks. I’ll come to him in a few seconds.

Elephants have tusks. But not all. In Asia it’s usually the males who have em, but not all. In Africa, the females traditionally sported tusks as did males but of late we see a decline in elephants being born with the ability to grow tusks. Is this an evolutionary reaction to Human poaching? It just could be. The purpose of evolution is preservation and adaptation and we had nearly run the species to extinction. The question though for me is “How ?”. It’s a question that I know I won’t work out the answer to. It’s kinda like the weather. We know nothing despite all our satellites still. Mother Nature stumps us every time. Well, here in North East India about 60 percent of male Elephants don’t have tusks and are called Makhana. Oh they’re big and can be brutal and a head butt or trunk slap from these behemoths can pretty much do more damage than any other animal. They just don’t have tusks like the ones we call The Tuskers.

So, despite trying to stay clear of Elephants I did run into a herd crossing the road. As they were getting across, the Makhna who was evidently in Musth raced in front of his lot when he saw us. I knew the road was narrow and he was close but man this guy was gorgeous ( Pics : 1 – 6 ). Look at that fat trunk and his physique. Screw getting chased man. I was begging Pinku to get closer. Oh this guy gave me such beautiful stares. Such a handsome Bull. One of the prettiest and biggest I’ve seen for sure. He just kept an eye on us while his lot crossed the road and then quickly slipped into the bush himself as well with that ever present, mischevious, I know it all Elephant smile on his face.

We chanced upon a mother and child Elephant the next day. The mother wasn’t really bothered with us and decided to walk on ahead while the male child stepped up to us out of curiosity and then went on ahead to spray himself with dirt ( Pics : 7 - 12 ). I’ve wanted these shots for a while and honestly as luck would have it, him being a sub adult helped big time. He was at eye level and giving us the eye. There’s no way these would work at this distance with a full grown male. The angle would have been horrible and if it was a bull, I’m not sure if Pinku would’ve stuck around so close. Bansbari has narrow winding roads and doubtful if we’d get any shots if we backed up. Anyway, the dirt / dust action came out pretty good as far as I’m concerned and I think my subject was having a pretty good time going about it as well. Just look at him. Doesn’t he look happy going about his morning sunscreen ritual?

These two short interactions with Elephants were such a needed break from scanning the treeline all day. I thought I’d seen Elephants but I didn’t have any of these photos. Not of a huge Makhna in Musth and definitely not of a poser taking a dirt bath. It worked out pretty good for me in hindsight come to think of it. I guess it turns out that old friends can bring surprises just as good as the new ones after all huh?