The additional 26-day period of elevated GCM concentrations that occurred at the beginning of March, thereafter ending abruptly, overlapped with the beginning of the musth period of Bull 1.
In Bull 2, we observed musth signs twice; the first time from June until mid-July 2007 and a second time from the end of April 2008 until the end of the study period.
Most of the Kari (septic pododermatitis) cases began after incarceration for
musth or rainy season.
There could be no doubt; like the bull that charged us a few days earlier, this bull was also in
musth.
Because the female elephant's oestrus cycle is not seasonally-linked, and
musth is most commonly associated with the winter months, there is not believed to be a direct connection between
musth and rut.
One copy will always remain with the owner or mahout so as to assist during illness of the animals, including remedial measures during the
Musth period of tuskers.
A maturing male doesn't go into full musth all at once but starts with sporadic days of erratic behavior and quick spikes in testosterone concentration in his blood.
Although only male Asian elephants exhibit musth, both males and females of African elephants secrete liquids from their temples, says chemist Thomas Goodwin of Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas.
And some of these big bulls, when they go into
musth, which is this sexual state they make a special rumble which is very low and very pulsing," she added.
Full-grown elephants imported into a park of destructive youngsters demonstrated that when older males enter the aggressive, testosterone-driven state called
musth, they suppress that condition in younger males (158: 341).
30 NATURE, he and his colleagues attribute the turnaround to a shortening of the time a young male spends in a testosterone-crazed state called musth.
At the height of musth, an algal layer builds up on the elephant's penis, creating a green sheen.
