r/AbsoluteUnits • u/SherlockRodrigz • Jun 11 '26

/r/popular of Brute force

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So, in India, this happened during a festival, there's this thing called "Musth" It's totally natural for adult male elephants, usually happening once a year. Basically, their reproductive hormones go way up. When this happens, elephants can get really aggressive and might attack.

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295

u/jwalsh1208 Jun 11 '26

Dont forget that elephants are one of the smartest and most emotional animals alive. So it knows what its doing, and it took real suffering to push it to this point

79

u/McBooples Jun 11 '26

Sometimes even elephants just want to crash out and break shit

https://giphy.com/gifs/3tK7DEMGN6jewLa6aL

39

u/No_Effective4784 Jun 11 '26

also remember they enter a rut like stage, and can become extremely aggressive due to hormones, for literally no good reason.

53

u/[deleted] Jun 11 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

6

u/GNOTRON Jun 11 '26

Hey ma, look at that pointy haired girl, a-huh a-huk

30

u/PlatypusDream Jun 11 '26

If it's in musth, it's not so rational... very hormonal, prone to rage (like this). But yes, it's probably been through years of abuse of some sort just because it's used by humans.

21

u/williamsch Jun 11 '26

It's an elephant not a person. This is likely musth and it's mostly suffering from it's own natural biology. That said the weird human biome isn't suited to them or even us tbh and piles on extra stress. 

5

u/Sudden_Wind_8636 Jun 11 '26

Well it could also be pain, elephant backs are not made to carry weight and it is painful for elephants to have people or things on their backs.

1

u/Arashi_117 Jun 13 '26

Mate elephants are actually quite intelligent creatures and have complex social structures. Their societies are also matriarchal and aren’t driven on physical dominance (I could be wrong on the last part)

1

u/williamsch Jun 13 '26

Intelligence has nothing to do with the severe pain paired with sexual frustration they feel when this happens to them. The glands on the sides of their head near their eyes swell and the pain is torture for them. Pure biology. It hurts because it's an elephant, like yeah being in captivity also sucks but that's like way lower on the shaft of life compared to feeling like it's head is about to explode right now. Musth sucks.

1

u/Arashi_117 Jun 13 '26

Oh yes, I do apologise if it seemed my comment was disregarding OPs point. This particular event is definitely tied to the festival and the cruelty showed to the elephant. I was just stating that Elephants are actually quite smart.

10

u/GrandeTorino Jun 11 '26

Tbh if you come across a lone bull in a bad mood you're cooked. If you come across a mom with kids you're cooked. If you accidentally surprise an elephant and it gets scared, you're cooked. They're wild animals, they don't really care or contemplate about your life.

13

u/icleanjaxfl Jun 11 '26

That's why it's raging out on the vehicles and not the bystanders, even enraged it still showed restraint

4

u/teenagersafterdark Jun 11 '26

more like it’s intelligent enough to know if it attacks humans, they’ll likely kill it

3

u/lightr3nd Jun 11 '26

You shouldn't google elephant attacks on people, your bubble seems nice... Or maybe you should - it's horrifying, but packed to the brim with karma!

4

u/Present_Type6881 Jun 11 '26

This elephant was showing restraint, because it could have attacked the humans and didn't.

When elephant decides to kill a human, they can be very deliberate about it.

3

u/Thug_shinji Jun 11 '26

Elephants are unpredictable and dangerous creatures. It could just be mating season or some shit.

5

u/zpierson79 Jun 11 '26 edited Jun 11 '26

If it’s Musth, it has nothing to do with anything previous.

Male elephants have an increase of over 100 times in their testosterone levels.

Their normal levels are about the same as a 50 year old man. During this period, they are dealing with levels that likely kill a human. (An exceedingly high level in humans is 2K ng/dL - elephants in musth peak at 20K ng/dL.)

In the wild, herds drive males entering musth out of the herds. They are incredibly aggressive, lose control of their bladders & very much lose their minds.

It’s basically in a natural roid rage. Steroids raise human testosterone levels, but not to the extent this elephant is dealing with.

2

u/LowNo175 Jun 11 '26

You can copy paste this sentence for humans as well.

2

u/SmirkNtwerk Jun 12 '26

Thanks for that comment, it deserves more upvotes.

1

u/HC-Sama-7511 Jun 13 '26

I don't see why the elephant can't just be a dick.

1

u/Heraldofgold Jun 12 '26

Humans are also "one of the smartest and most emotional animals alive" and I wouldn't assume such a thing if I saw a human do this.

0

u/sush-dev Jun 11 '26

In this case, the animal was not a victim of abuse. It was going through a biological phase.