The 13-year-old male killed a Scottish tourist on Koh Samui Monday was not on musth and may have launched into its deadly attack due to hot weather or by being startled, an official with the island’s livestock development office said today.
Cherdchai Chareonvej told the Bangkok Post that he and his colleagues closely observed Golf at the Island Safari Elephant Kraal in tambon Bor Phut at 7pm Monday night, about four hours after the deadly attack, and the bull was eating grass peacefully and showed no signs of being in having entered the rutting season.
"If he has been in musth he would not allow us to get close to him. The elephant may have been startled by something and that caused the attack," Mr Chardchai said, adding more details would be revealed after police questioned the mahout and the surviving tourist.
"We suspect that the hot weather made the elephant angry and that he was not accustomed to his mahout," Paiboon Omark, Samui district chief, told AFP.
Also called Rambo, the elephant has been chained to a tree on open ground since Monday while officials and Parng Chang Island Safari staff are monitoring his behaviour.
Employees and local livestock officials tracked Golf through a forested area of Khao Darng mountain and herded him back to camp after the attack that killed Gareth Norman Crowe, 36, and injured 37-year-old Myanmar mahout Zaw Win Tun during a trekking tour on Monday afternoon.
Crowe's 16-year-old daughter, Eilidh Hughes, a British citizen, sustained bruises and scratches in the incident that occurred two kilometres from the camp.
Samui district chief Mr Paiboon told AFP that Crowe had a prosthetic leg and was unable to run away from the marauding pachyderm.
Pol Col Chaiyan Bundit, investigative chief at Bor Phut police station who is overseeing the case, said he would question Ms Hughes and Zaw Win Tun when they were ready, as well as other witnesses. No charges would be pressed at this stage, he added.