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A bull elephant in musth, wild or otherwise, is extremely dangerous to humans, other elephants, and other species. Bull elephants in musth have killed keepers/mahouts, as well as other bull elephants, female elephants, and calves (the last usually inadvertently or accidentally in what is often called "herd infighting"). [13]
[29] [1] The rut is observed in both African and Asian elephants and it is referred to as musth. [30] Its meaning is derived from the Urdu word mast meaning intoxication. The most prominent characteristics of an elephant in rut are heightened sexual and aggressive activity along with copious temporal gland secretion and continual urine discharge.
Temporin has a communicative function among elephant individuals in a group. [1]: 101 In male elephants, temporin is secreted more during the period of musth, a period of heightened sexual arousal and dominance behavior. Of note, not all temporal gland excretions in African elephant bulls do necessarily represent the musth phase.
A male elephant's testes, like other Afrotheria, [83] are internally located near the kidneys. [84] The penis can be as long as 100 cm (39 in) with a 16 cm (6 in) wide base. It curves to an 'S' when fully erect and has an orifice shaped like a Y. The female's clitoris may be 40 cm (16 in).
Periods of musth are short and sporadic in young bulls up to 35 years old, lasting a few days to weeks. Older bulls are in musth for 2–5 months every year. Musth occurs mainly during and following the rainy season when females are in estrus. [57] Bulls in musth often chase each other and are aggressive towards other bulls in musth.
After puberty, male elephants tend to form close alliances with other males. While females are the most active members of African elephant groups, both male and female elephants are capable of distinguishing between hundreds of different low-frequency infrasonic calls to communicate with and identify each other. [35] [36]
A male elephant is typically encouraged to leave the herd once it reaches puberty which often happens between the ages of 8 and 13. This is a gradual process most of the times and is determined by the male's competitive and independent nature and the tolerance of the herd.
Jumbo (December 25, 1860 – September 15, 1885), also known as Jumbo the Elephant and Jumbo the Circus Elephant, was a 19th-century male African bush elephant born in Sudan. Jumbo was exported to Jardin des Plantes , a zoo in Paris , and then transferred in 1865 to London Zoo in England.