Lady-killer elephant being tracked in Indian park

New Delhi - Forest wardens are hunting for a 25-year-old bull elephant suspected of killing at least 12 female elephants in a wildlife reserve in southern India after they spurned his sexual advances, news reports said Wednesday.

Eight female elephants were found dead in the Periyar tiger reserve in Kerala state from February 2009 to June, the Times of India newspaper quoted the state's chief wildlife warden KK Srivastava as saying.

Srivastava said postmortem reports suggested the deaths were caused by the same tusker who has been named Alpha by forest officials.

"Two more females were found dead between March 12 and March 21 this year," Srivastava said. "The nature of the injuries point to the same culprit."

The rogue tusker is believed to have killed another two elephants over the past three years, forest officials said.

Alpha most likely gored these elephants because they resisted his sexual advances while he was in a "musth" state, the forest officials said.

Musth, which derives from Persian and means intoxicated, is a term used to describe a periodic condition in bull elephants when they show highly aggressive behavior because of increased testosterone levels.

Forensic tests on the dead elephants revealed they had puncture marks on their rears. The wounds matched the dimensions of Alpha's tusks, the Times of India said.

A 15-member expert panel has been set up to track the rogue elephant, the report said.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/320960,lady-killer-elephant-being-tracked-in-indian-park.html.