It was March 28th, 2014 – a bright and cheerful Friday eveningat the Sanstha-pitiyawewa in Wasgamuwa National Park. There were around 40 elephants of different sexes and ages. They exhibited high levels of activity; several were mud bathing, while others were foraging, drinking, and socializing in various ways. We even observed two bulls chasing each other around a grove of trees with the one behind attempting to grab the tail of the one in front.
The main group was made up of two related family groups. Hanging around with them were three mature adult males called Gayantha, Gowinda, and Chamitha.It appeared that both Gayantha and Chamitha were in musth and Gowinda was not. While observing them carefully, I realized Gayntha and Chamitha were with an adult female a little far off from the main group and guarding her. This behaviour indicated the female was most probably in estrus and that the three males were competing to mate with her. From our vantage point, it appeared that Gayntha and Chmithahad more control over the female.
On the northern side of the Wewa, another exciting scene unfolded: it was Aloka, our resident tusker popping out from the forest and the bull directly dove into the water, joining another male. They appeared to enjoy each other???s company.
My attention was diverted again to the main group. I noticed Gowinda, who was close to that female, started to walk towards a juvenile female (class 3). The juvenile was grazing on some grass a distance away from its mother and the rest of the family group. Gowinda came behind the juvenile and straight away mounted on the juvenile to mate with it. The front legs of the bull were on either side of the shoulders and head of the juvenile as he held it fast and hunched over to mate. The bull dwarfed the small elephant so much it was like watching a killer whale trying to mate with a porpoise!
The obstreperous behaviour of the amorous bull drew the attention of the other females in the herd.?? They bunched together and rushed over to where the bull was straddling the juvenile elephant.?? Standing in a row with mouths agape they screamed and roared at the bull showing their displeasure at his appalling behaviour.?? The collective efforts of the females distracted the bull allowing the small fellow to getaway.?? It ran to the herd screaming and was immediately surrounded by the mature females and they took off into the forest with the bull following them.??
To me, it looked like an impossible situation because the bull was more than four times the size of the small elephant and it seemed the sex and age of the small elephant seemed irrelevant to the bull in his heightened sexual state.
Gowinda did not look as if it was in musth, so it is intriguing as to what could have triggered the bull to behave in such a manner??? The most probable explanation for this was that ??? the female in estrous that the other two males were guarding could have sexually aroused him and heightened ??his desire. Since the other two males were guarding the estrous female and to quench his sexual desire, he turned to the juvenile. From the way the adult females in the herd had responded, it is safe to assume that this was not normal and acceptable behaviour. Similar kind of behaviours have been observed in some other animal species due to changes or shifts in their populations e.g. the sex ratio is skewed or biased towards males. Such situations can increase male sexual aggression and lead to harassment of juveniles as observed in social animals like sea lions, seals, and primates.
However, this was the first time I have observed such unusual sexual behaviour in elephants. I???m very interested in the mating behaviour of elephants mainly because it hasn???t been studied much in wild Asian elephants and we only know very little about it. Hopefully, the studies that I am conducting in Wasgamuwa will help us to understand better such complex behaviours in this highly social and intelligent species. Also, such information is vital for the conservation of the endangered Asian elephants.
