Tusko

Tusko is a popular name given to elephants in captivity. Several notable elephants have been given this moniker.

Formerly known as "Ned," this Tusko was a giant circus elephant captured at age 6 in Siam (now Thailand). He stood just five feet high when he was unloaded from a sailing ship at New York harbor in 1898.

By 1922 he was touted as "The Meanest Elephant" as well as "the largest elephant ever in captivity", though at 10-feet-2-inches tall (3.1 meters), he was seven inches shorter than Jumbo. Nonetheless, Tusko was a ton heavier than Jumbo and the largest elephant in North America since Jumbo. The tusks which earned him his name were about seven feet long (213 centimeters).

No other circus wanted Tusko and he spent some time in an exhibition road show, accompanied by his keeper and lifelong devotee, young George "Slim" Lewis. Tusko ended his days in the Seattle Zoo, dying of a blood clot on June 10, 1933.

"Tusko" was also the name of a male Indian elephant at the Oklahoma City Zoo. On August 3, 1962, researchers from the University of Oklahoma injected (human use involves oral ingestion) 297 mg of LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide) to him, which is over 1,000 times the dose typical of human recreational use. Within five minutes he collapsed to the ground and one hour and forty minutes later he died. It is believed that the LSD was the cause of his death, although some speculate that the drugs the researchers used in an attempt to revive him may have contributed to his death.

An Asian elephant by the name "Tusko" resided at the Oregon Zoo in Portland, Oregon from 2005 until December 2015. It is believed he was born in the wilds of Thailand around 1970, and was about 45 years old by the time of his death.

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