Warsaw zoo tests aftereffect of hemp oil on elephants' stress
29 August, 2020
Scientists at Warsaw’s zoo have been taking blood, saliva and other samples from the zoo’s three elephants in recent days to prepare to test whether giving them hemp oil can reduce their stress.
Dr. Agnieszka Czujkowska, a zoo veterinarian, said hemp oil, also called CBD, or cannabidiol oil, has been demonstrated to reduce anxiety and stress in other animals, including horses and dogs.
The zoo’s experts thought it made sense to see if may possibly also help their animals, including giraffes, rhinos and polar bears. They decided, however, to begin their tests on the three African elephants, who've undergone an interval of stress following the death in March of a fellow older female, Erna.
“Basically stress is everywhere and we don’t know what’s going to happen later on,” she said. “Maybe among the elephants will be pregnant, maybe you will see some kind of injury sometimes. They are able to break a tusk - it happens. They can get sick for no reason,” she said.
“We want to have something that will let them smoothly proceed through this period.”
As the study has drawn sensationalist headlines, Czujkowska explained that hemp oil is not a drug and differs from marijuana since it does not contain THC, the primary psychoactive compound in cannabis.
If the study works as hoped, the oil will merely “calm them down a bit,” and have anti-inflammatory and other benefits, she told The Associated Press on Friday as the animals ate large branches behind her.
“It will work in different ways but it won't give them any high,” she said. “Hemp oil isn't a drug.”
“We'd never apply whatever is dangerous to animals,” she added.
She and zookeepers brought the only real male elephant, Leon, right into a pen Friday and from outside a protective cage they reached directly into draw blood and take saliva samples. He obeyed his keepers because they ordered him to improve his trunk so they could take saliva swabs.
Some 300 samples - of blood, saliva, urine and feces - have already been taken over the past week in preparation.
Among other activities, the scientists are measuring the elephants’ degrees of cortisol, the strain hormone. If all goes as planned, they'll be able to get started on administering drops of hemp oil in a few weeks but it’s likely to take up to two years to get results from the analysis, Czujkowska said.
After Erna’s death, the rest of the two females have struggled to determine a hierarchy.
The 23-year-old Fryderyka, also known as Fredzia, has long tried to control the other female, Buba, also 23, but was kept in check to some extent by Erna, who helped to resolve conflicts.
Since Erna’s death, Fredzia specifically has shown greater levels of stress as she tries to regulate Buba’s eating and other behaviors.
Fredzia “is stressed because she actually is the boss of the herd. It’s like having a boss, 10 employees and suddenly eight are let go, which boss has nothing to accomplish,” said Patryk Pyciński, a mammal expert at the zoo who's mixed up in elephant study.
He said the zoo’s scientists hope that reducing stress levels may also allow Fredzia to conceive. He said if she's her own own offspring to steer, it might reduce her impulse to dominate Buba and lessen tensions in the group.
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