Must: a dangerous time when elephants go crazy with rage and destroy everything they see in search of a female (11 photos)

Yes, romantic feelings can hit you hard. So hard that the gusts of proboscis giants were called must, which means "intoxicated" in Urdu.





Get going! And tell all the cute elephants in the area that I'm waiting for them!

It's not the extra shot that gets the elephants drunk, but the monstrous dose of hormones. The dosage of testosterone can be so high that it exceeds the normal dose by 60 times. And for some individuals, this indicator exceeded the norm by 140 times!



Mammoths and other extinct relatives of elephants also had must! Scientists found this out by calculating the concentration of testosterone in their tusks.

With such a dose of testosterone, elephants do not begin to philosophize about life, hug their drinking buddies, and especially do not fall asleep on the spot. They turn on the berserker mode and begin to divide the world into two categories - a potential partner or enemy number one. Only splinters fly from the trees, stones, cars and any living creatures that were unlucky enough to meet a raging elephant soar into the sky.





An encounter with any other male during musth almost always ends in a fight.



Just another obstacle on the way to my girl.

The urgent need for female company is expressed in other ways. The male trumpets his desires throughout the area, and a resinous liquid, temporin, begins to be secreted from small glands on the temples. This is a cocktail of proteins, fats and other compounds, the smell of which spreads throughout the area.



If for us love shoots in the heart, then for elephants it shoots in the head to kill.

For females ready for pregnancy, all these signals are an insistent invitation, and for the rest of the elephants - a sign to roll up their trunks, take their tusks in their hands and run as far as possible, until the emotional male jumps out of the bushes with a furious cry.



Go to your neighborhood, my chicks!

Must drives tame elephants crazy just like wild ones. People have to put up with it. It's hard to calm a giant who demands women. For thousands of years, they couldn't come up with anything better than locking the troublemaker in a fortified pen and feeding him less.



If you are lucky enough to see an elephant, but you see these signs, you need to run immediately!

You can also give the animal sedatives, for example, xylazine, which is often used by veterinarians. But even an elephant on intermittent fasting and sedatives will smash, break and riot for a week or two. Wild brethren terrorize the area much longer - up to three months.



Why does he flip cars? Because he can!

Why is this madness even necessary? Is it really impossible to announce readiness to continue the family line in a calmer way? Scientists do not yet have an exact answer to this question. Perhaps, a frantic rampage is the only way to find a soulmate in the vastness of the savannah or in the wilds of the jungle. Sexually mature males wander separately from females. And with cries, smells and indecent behavior, they shout to the whole area: "woman, come!".



A dirty man who smells of testosterone a mile away. That's what I need!

At the same time, must itself is extremely attractive to female elephants! If a lady is faced with a choice: an experienced man in his prime without must or an inexperienced guy, but with must, she will choose the latter. Perhaps this is a mechanism that allows not only old men to reproduce, but also young men who have just learned the joys of independent life.



The first musth in young males appears at 20 years and continues until 50-60 years.

Sooner or later the musth passes, the testosterone level returns to normal, and the males (without a hangover) return to their normal life without fighting, scaring other animals and unbearable stench spreading around the area. Savannah can breathe a sigh of relief!



How good it is that all this is over and we can roll around in the mud and play the fool again!