JUNE 26,
2019
Males of
many species slow down in their pursuit of females as they age. Not so with
elephants. A new study published today reveals that bull elephants increase the
energy they put into reproduction as they get older.
The new
research conducted by the University of Oxford, Save the Elephants and Colorado
State University, compared the movements of male African savannah elephants while they were
in musth, a periodic state of intensive testosterone-fueled sexual
activity, and when they were not. The results reveal that, as they age, male
elephants move more in musth and move less out of musth. The combination of
these two diverging factors meant that, despite having similar speeds and range
sizes between states at age 20, by age 50 males were traveling twice as fast in
3.5 times larger area in musth compared to non-musth.
The
investigation, led by Dr. Lucy Taylor at the University of Oxford's Department
of Zoology, used a combination of visual observations and GPS tracking data
from 25 male elephants aged between 20-52 years old. The data was collected in
the Samburu and Buffalo Springs National Reserve, Northern Kenya, as part of
Save the Elephants' long-term monitoring project between 2000 and 2018.
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