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Questions about musth

Massago's picture
Sun, 2010-09-05 19:22 by Massago · Forum/category:

Hello,

My question is about Winston and his periods of musth. Cynthia Moss wrote "He was regularly coming into musth". Can you tell me since when he started to show this particular sexual activity and with which frequency ?
If he was in sexual activity more than one time in a year, how long was the duration of these periods ? Did he compete with other bulls ? Then, do you know if Winston mated with a female ?

I'm very interested by sexual activity of bulls so, I'll appreciate so much to get your answers. Thank you.

Pascal

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cmoss's picture

Winston's musth cycle

Fri, 2010-09-10 13:36 by cmoss

Winston was first recorded to be in musth on 15 September 2005 at the age of 25 years. He was not seen in musth again until April, June and August of 2008 on these respective dates- 28/04/2008, 27/06/2008 and 04/08/2008 when he was 28. There were no musth records for him for 2009 but it was serious drought year and many bulls did not come into musth. On the earlier dates he was not recorded with or in the company of any cows. The field observers as well don't recall seeing him guarding or mating with any females. However, in May of this year a photographer took several beautiful portraits of Winston over a period of a couple weeks. At that time Winston was with a large group of 160 elephants out on the lakebed. He was the biggest bull there and we suspect he did mate with at least one or two of the females. We hope so.

Massago's picture

Musth and drought

Tue, 2010-09-14 21:42 by Massago

Thank you Cynthia for all these informations. If I understand, most of the time when there is drought, bulls don't come into musth. Is it because of local social environment, I mean because females don't come into oestrus, or is it a physiological effect peculiar to bulls when there is drought ?

Last questions, will you have possibility to know if Winston is the father of one or more infants who will born around march 2012 ? Have you got Winston's DNA ?

When you write Winston was the biggest bull in the large group of 160 elephants, I ask myself where were the other big bulls because I imagine a large group like that one could be very attractive for bulls if there was females in oestrus ! Or do you mean bulls more than 40 years old start to disappear ?

It is a bit hard to stop to ask you questions but I need to take your availability in consideration.
Thanks a lot to share with us.

Pascal

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