Warsaw zoo tests effect of hemp oil on elephants’ stress

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — 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 known as CBD, or cannabidiol oil, has been shown to reduce anxiety and stress in other animals, including horses and dogs.

The zoo’s experts thought it made sense to see if could also help their animals, including giraffes, rhinos and polar bears. They decided, however, to start their tests on their three African elephants, who have undergone a period 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 in the future,” she said. “Maybe one of the elephants will be pregnant, maybe there will be some kind of injury sometimes. They can break a tusk — it happens. They can get sick for no reason,” she said.

“We want to have something that will let them smoothly go through this period.”

While the study has drawn sensationalist headlines, Czujkowska explained that hemp oil is not a drug and is different from marijuana because it does not contain THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis.

If the study works as hoped, the oil will merely “calm them down a little 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 will not give them any high,” she said. “Hemp oil is not a drug.”

“We would never apply anything that is dangerous to animals,” she added.

She and zookeepers brought the sole male elephant, Leon, into a pen Friday and from outside a protective cage they reached in to draw blood and take saliva samples. He obeyed his keepers as they ordered him to raise his trunk so they could take saliva swabs.