SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online

 
vol.79 issue1 author indexsubject indexarticles search
Home Pagealphabetic serial listing  

Services on Demand

Article

Indicators

Related links

  • On index processCited by Google
  • On index processSimilars in Google

Share


Journal of the South African Veterinary Association

On-line version ISSN 2224-9435
Print version ISSN 1019-9128

J. S. Afr. Vet. Assoc. vol.79 n.1 Pretoria  2008

 

ARTICLE ARTIKEL

 

Estimating exposed pulp lengths of tusks in the African elephant (Loxodonta africana africana)

 

 

G SteenkampI; W H FergusonI; S C BoyII; S M FerreiraIII; and M N BesterI

IMammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002 South Africa
IIDepartment of Oral Pathology and Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Pretoria, 0002 South Africa
IIIConservation Ecology Research Unit, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, 0002 South Africa

 

 


ABSTRACT

Captive and wild African elephants frequently suffer tusk fractures. Several institutions shorten the tusks of captive elephants to reduce fractures and injury as a result of behaviour within enclosures. Fracturing or coronal amputations that expose pulp lead to pain for the elephant. Estimating coronal pulp lengths may thus help to minimise the risk of pulp exposure during amputations. We aimed to determine the length of the pulpbeyond the lip margin from an external tusk characteristic. Tusks collected from elephants in Namibia and the Kruger National Park had similar morphological relationships. This statistical property allowed us to correct for missing data in our data sets. Pulp volume and pulp length correlated with tusk circumference at the lip. Even so, the circumference at the lip could not predict the length of the pulp in the crown external to the lip. Our findings suggest that tusks, irrespective of sex or age, amputated further than 300 mm from the lip should not expose pulp.

Key words: African elephant, captive populations, free-ranging populations, tusk amputation, tusk fractures, tusk pulp, tusk pulp treatment


 

 

“Full text available only in PDF format”

 

 

 

REFERENCES

1. Blanc J J, Thouless C R, Hart H T, Dublin I, Douglas-Hamilton C, Craig G, Barnes R F W 2003 African elephant status report 2002. Gland, Switzerland        [ Links ]

2. Boy S C, Steenkamp G 2004 Neural innervation of the tusk pulp of the African elephant (Loxodonta africana). Veterinary Record 154(12): 372-374        [ Links ]

3. Clark T J 2002 Successful application and outcome of a direct pulp cap in a Malaysian elephant. Proceedings ofthe Annual American Association of Zoo Veterinarians: Zoo Dentistry Symposium, Milwaukee, 5 October 2002: 25        [ Links ]

4. Gross M E, Clifford C A, Hardy D A 1994 Excitement in an elephant after intravenous administration of atropine. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association 205(10): 1437-1438        [ Links ]

5. Harthoorn A M 1975 The drug immobilization of large wild herbivores other than the antelopes. In Young E (ed.) The capture and care of wild animals. Human & Rossouw, Cape Town: 51-61        [ Links ]

6. Kertesz P 1993 A colour atlas of veterinary dentistry & oral surgery. Wolfe Publishing, Aylesbury        [ Links ]

7. Laws R M 1966 Age criteria for the African elephant Loxodonta a. africana. East African Wildlife Journal 4: 1-37        [ Links ]

8. Lindeque M 1988 Population dynamics of elephants in Etosha National Park, S.W.A./ Namibia. PhD thesis, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch        [ Links ]

9. Mikota S K, Sargent E L, Ranglack G S 1994 Dentistry. In Medical management of the elephant. Indira Publishing House, Michigan: 87-94        [ Links ]

10. Miller W D 1891 Studies on the anatomy and pathology of the tusks of the elephant. The Dental Cosmos 33: 421-440        [ Links ]

11. Nanci A 2003 Dentin-pulp complex. In Ten Cate A R (ed.) Ten Cafe's oral histology, development, structure, and function (6th edn). Mosby, St Louis, Missouri: 192-239        [ Links ]

12. Perry J S 1954 Some observations on growth and tusk weight in male and female African elephants. Proceedings of the Zoological Society London 124: 97-104        [ Links ]

13. Pienaar D 2005 Water provision in the Kruger National Park. In Rogers K H (ed.) Elephants and biodiversity - a synthesis of current understanding of the role and management of elephants in savanna ecosystems. National Parks Board, Skukuza, South Africa        [ Links ]

14. Raubenheimer E J 1999 Morphological aspects and composition of African elephant (Loxodonta africana) ivory. Koedoe 42(2): 57-64        [ Links ]

15. Robinson P T, Schmidt M 1986 Dentistry in zoo animals: dental diseases of elephants and hippos. In Fowler M E (ed.) Zoo and wild animal medicine (2nd edn). W B Saunders, Philadelphia: 534-547        [ Links ]

16. Sankaran M, Hanan N P, Scholes R J, Ratnam J, Augustine D J, Cade B S, Gignoux J, Higgins S I, Le Roux X, Ludwig F, Ardo J, Banyikwa F, Bronn A, Bucini G, Caylor K K, Coughenour M B, Diouf A, Ekaya W, Feral C J, February E C, Frost P G, Hiernaux P Hrabar H, Metzger K L, Prins H H, Ringrose S, Sea W, Tews J, Worden J, Zambatis N 2005 Determinants of woody cover in African savannas. Nature 438(7069): 846-8499        [ Links ]

17. Shrader A M, Ferreira S M, van Aarde R J 2006 Digital photogrammetry and laser rangefinder techniques to measure African elephants. South African Journal of Wildlife Research 36: 1-7        [ Links ]

18. Sokal R R, Rohlf F J 1995 Biomefry: fhe principles and pracfice ofsfafisfics in biological research (3rd edn).WHFreeman, New York        [ Links ]

19. Steenkamp G 2003 Oral biology and disorders of tusked mammals. Veterinary Clinics of North America: Exotic Animal Practice 6(3): 689-725        [ Links ]

20. Steenkamp G, Ferreira S M, Bester M N 2007 Tusklessness and tusk fractures in free-ranging African savanna elephants (Loxodonta africana). Journal of South African Veterinary Association 78: 75-80        [ Links ]

21. van Aarde R J, Whyte I J, Pimm S L 1991 Culling and the dynamics of the Kruger National ParkAfrican elephant population. Animal Conservation 2: 287-294        [ Links ]

22. Venter F J, Scholes R J, Eckhardt H C 2003 The abiotic template and its associated vegetation pattern. In Du Toit J T, Biggs H, Rodgers K (eds) The Kruger experience: ecology and management of savanna heterogeneity. Island Press, Washington, DC        [ Links ]

23. Weissengruber G E, Egerbacher M, Forstenpointner G 2005 Structure and innervation of the tusk pulp in the African elephant (Loxodonta africana). Journal of Anatomy 206(4): 387-393        [ Links ]

24. Whyte I J 2001 Conservation management of the Kruger National Park elephant population. PhD thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria        [ Links ]

25. Wiggs R B, Lobprise H 1997 Exotic animal oral disease and dentistry. In Wiggs R B & Lobprise H (eds) Veterinary dentistry: principles & practice. Lippencot-Raven, Philadelphia: 538-558        [ Links ]

 

 

Received: June 2007
Accepted: January 2008

 

 

* Author for correspondence: E-mail: gerhard.steenkamp@up.ac.za

Creative Commons License All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License