WHEN ELEPHANTS RETIRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 4033, 30 June 1931, Page 66

WHEN ELEPHANTS RETIRE.

Only one thing disturbs the working elephant, and that is soft ground. Anything in the nature of boggy ground makes him very uneasy, for "once he sinks into mud extrication is no simple matter. If it should happen that the animal does sink its forelegs into some soft spot, the mahout retires to a safe distance with great celerity. The elephant’s chief concern will be to obtain something solid to tread on, and he is quite likely to remove his rider for that purpose. Left to himself, the animal will tear down a sapling or so and trample them under-foot until he gains firm ground.

The elephant is a willing worker. If he is harnessed to a log that is too heavy for him, his distress is almost comical. He groans, trumpets, and whinnies while straining at the load, and real tears come into his brown eyes. He does not stop trying until the mahout gives the order, and even then he is not fully satisfied until another elephant is detailed to help with the task. Although no clock-watcher, the elephant does not believe in doing more than a fair day’s work. When the. gong is sounded at eleven o’clock, he ceases work immediately, and not all the coaxing of his mahout could make him perform another stroke. Then loads" are unshackled, no matter where they are, and the elephants are driven back to camp to be unharnessed. Afterwards they are turned loose in the jungle to feed.

The average working elephant is retired at the age of fifty. Some retain their pristine vigour until they are seventv or older, but the powers of the majority begin to fail at the half-century. The signs are an increased liability to harness sores and prolonged sick-leave from other causes, known or unknown. Bad harness sores require heroic methods of treatment. Quicklime is packed round the affected part so that the skin will not crack when the animal lies down for treatment. A- local anesthetic of from ten to twenty grains of cocaine is administered hypodermically. When the flesh is thoroughly “frozen” the bad part is cut away, and any accumulated pus is pumped from * the wound. Thorough cleansing with antiseptic, applied through a garden syringe, completes the operation, and the animal is excused duty until the wound has healed. —James Decie, in Chambers’s Journal.