Makhna

Definition of Makhna

From the elephant glossary Section: genetics

Two Makhnas.

Relevant Literature about Makhna
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Makhna (also: makna, mukna, muckna) is an Indian word for a tusk less bull elephant. In most cases the term is referred to tusk less males, or males with very small Tushes. If they are wild, they sometimes even get the name Makhna, since there seldom are other makhnas in the area.

The Asian bull Maxi in Zürich Zoo was sometimes named Makhna, but he was a Tusker.

In several places in India, the Mahouts claim that Makhnas has not as deep and uncontrolled Musth as the Tuskers , while outside the Musth period they are more unpredictable.

Elephant bulls in Sri Lanka are mostly Tuskless. In the early 1980s a census conducted by the DWLC listed 344 elephants, including 29 Tuskers and 154 makhnas (Anon., 1982d); but A.B. Fernando, who handed the mimeographed single page to the author, estimated that about 10% were uncounted, the addition of which would give about 380 elephants (A.B. Fernando, 1988).

In Thailand, a Makhna is referred to as a Sidor, or Sedor.

Records about Makhna from the Gajah Glossary at https://www.asesg.org/PDFfiles/Gajah/23-01-Glossary.pdf Mukhna (Hindustani): (also: mukna, muckna, makna, makhna) (Sanderson 1907: 53,66,119; Sanderson 1962: 15,190; Chadwick 1992:304-305;
Sukumar 1992: Daniel 1 9 9 8: 60-6 1 ; Lahiri Choudhury 1999:458)

Term for tusk-less male elephants in India. Approximately 90% of bulls in S. India, 50% in N. India, and 5-10% in Sri Lanka do carry Tusks.

The term is Aliya or Pussa in Sri Lanka; the term is Sidor in Thailand; the term is Haing or Hine in Burma (Daniel 7998145 Lahid-Choudhuty 1999:411); The name is Tondo in Mozambique (Capstick 1988:90).

A male without Tusks suffers from an inferiority complex and is often very dangerous (Shand 1992:6).

M. Philip Kahl and Charles Santiapillai, Gajah Elephant Glossary, Gajah nr 23 (2004), Journal for Asian Elephant Specialist Group

Reference list Koehl, Dan, (2024). Makhna. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 20 September 2021 at https://www.elephant.se/index.php?id=18. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

Records about Makhna from the Gajah Glossary, https://www.asesg.org/PDFfiles/Gajah/23-01-Glossary.pdf

Selected publications

Whitehouse, A. M. (2002) Tusklessness in the elephant

Links about Makhna

Selected external links for this article about Makhna:

http://innthewild.com/blog/whats-new/encounters-with-makhna-innthewild-mudumalai/

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Categories glossary | genetics

About this documentThis document was created: 2021-09-22. Latest update: 2021-10-17 12:14:40 included 2023 characters with valid HTML5