B131 in musth

I was in camp trying to ID the elephants I have seen this month when Joseph, the guide in camp and a volunteer researcher, came back to announce that there was a herd of elephants at the Bridge. I abandoned the ID work and went off to see who were there. Unfortunately most of the elephants were in thick forest but when I went around the island I found a large male and to 5-9yr olds hanging out under a large tree.

It was midday so this was not unusual for them to be chilling under a tree. But this male was in musth, or at least coming out of musth ….. I think. He was not secreting much from his temporal glands, but when his 5th leg appeared it was obvious that he had been in musth as the top half was green. The reason I think he was coming out of musth is that he was not dribbling urine from his penis, he was not secreting a lot, he was not with the ladies and