Samburu is breath taking!
We left the camp for game drive at around 1600hrs and just up the camp were beautiful Doum palm trees dots the lugga that confluence Ewaso Nyiro river. A herd of elephant drinking and bathing. We noticed several bulls around the herd and it was obvious that there were cows on heat. As we got closer to the group, we spotted one big bull and HE was the boss! And was in musth! No wonder all the cows are around him.
Leaking as he walks around, you could smell him from miles away. It’s definitely about the scent (The stinkier the better I guess…I wonder why…)
Generally, cows prefer big bulls in musth and this is to ensure good genes are transferred. At age 20’s and above, the bull come into musth for brief periods of time. This is indicated by an oily, smelly fluid secreted from temporal gland, pungent dripping urine, a greenish fluid is secreted from the penis. This results to aggression in some bulls and they can be seen walking with a ‘swag’. This leads to an elevated testosterone levels in bulls. The musth in bulls can last between 2-5 months and occurs once a year in older bulls of 30-40yrs. Bulls don’t have to be in musth in order breed
We got lucky to have witness this amorous moment and boy, everyone around that herd got super excited . They all started trumpeting and urinating at the same time. Well, for us it was exciting to have witness that. Who wouldn’t?
Ps:
65 millions years ago Elephants had shared a common ancestry with odd-toed ungulate (Rhinoceros and Horses) and with Hyraxes but they only emerged as a distinctly African group after the continent had become isolated. Both early elephants and early sea cows began as wallowing herbivorous cousins but one remained terrestrial while the sea cows became wholly aquatic.
#HaveWithGk
Related Images:
