Ontogeny

Though wild elephants are capable of siring offspring at ages as young as 17 (Poole 1999), musth does not usually begin until males are between 25-30 (Druce). Musth frequency and duration increase with age (Rasmussen, H. B. 2008). Young bulls may enter musth for only a few days, while a 40 year old bull may be in musth for up to four months (Druce)

Musth in younger males may be different from musth in older males. In Asian elephants, the musth in younger males is referred to as ‘moda’ to differentiate it from the musth periods in older males (Rasmussen, L. E. L 2002) The temporal gland secretions of younger male Asian elephants has a sweet, honey-like scent. The sweet smelling temporal secretions consist of ketones, alcohols, and esters, and strangely have odor profiles similar to those of several scent-producing insect species (Rasmussen, L. E. L. 2001). Older males secrete a foul-smelling substance instead (Rasmussen, L. E. L. 2002). The scent is partially due to 2-nonanone (Rasmussen, L. E. L. 2001).

The differences in the musth periods of younger males and older males is not lost on elephants. The presence of older males has been shown to suppress musth in younger males (Milius). Captive males, removed from the influence of other males, have been found to enter musth at ages as young as 13 (Rasmussen, H.B. 2008). Young musth males lose the outward signs of musth within “hours or even minutes of being menaced by higher-ranking males in musth” (Milius). Since elephants continue growing throughout their lives, older males are generally significantly larger than younger males making them more likely to be dominant (Hollister-Smith 2007). A 40 year old male may be twice the weight and 30% larger than a 20-year-old male. Thus, older males are generally dominant over younger males. In the field, musth has been successfully reduced in artificially created communities of young males with the introduction of older, more dominant males (Milius, Druce). There is evidence to suggest that the introduction of mature males does not suppress the musth periods of males of the same or greater age (Druce). Instead of suppressing musth in other mature males, bull elephants have been known to develop coordinated musth periods (Kurt). Mature males in the same geographic range rarely have overlapping musth periods- a young male’s musth period will be suppressed by nearby mature males until he can find a niche. On the rare occasions that musth males do meet in the wild, they will fight and the loser will either drop out of musth immidiatley or leave the dominant male’s territory.