DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Behavioral Responses of Male African Elephants (Loxodonta Africana) to Musth Urine

雄性非洲象（Loxodonta africana）对尿液的行为反应。雄性大象通常表现出在大多数哺乳动物社会中雄性所看到的统治关系;较大的个体对较小的个体具有统治地位。 然而，发情期（睾丸激素升高和高攻击性的时期）暂时提高了雄性的统治地位，高于任何非发情期的雄性，无论其大小或年龄。 典型表现为与雌性的联系增加，性活动增加，颞腺分泌物和几乎连续的尿滴，musth被描述为类似于有蹄类动物的发情。 然而，与发情不同的是，发情全年都在发生，而且在种群中是异步的，因此只有少数公牛同时发情。 其发病和持续时间的机制尚不清楚，但年龄，体型和身体状况都会影响个体发生musth的可能性。 一次发情期可能持续几天到五个多月，通常随着男性年龄的增长而增加。 维持这种状态需要消耗大量的能量，因此雄性大象的身体会随着这种状态的持续而下降。这项研究探讨了雄性非洲象之间通过在发情期间滴尿来传递化学信号的可能性。 通过检查的时间模式的信号在musth，本研究探讨如何人口水平的musth的musth可能在一定程度上被解释为个人经济学的维持这种生理上昂贵的条件，并避免直接竞争与其他男性在musth。 因此，这些结果可能会进一步阐明当前的性选择理论，信号理论和男性竞争策略。 本研究也为进一步探讨尿液中的musth信号对雄性musth的抑制或刺激作用奠定了基础。

Behavioral responses of male African elephants (Loxodonta africana) to musth urine.PI: Susan C. Alberts and Julie Hollister-Smith Male elephants generally exhibit the dominance relationships seen in males of most mammalian societies; a larger individual is dominant to a smaller individual. However, musth episodes (periods of elevated testosterone and high aggression) temporarily raise a male's dominance position above any non-musth male regardless of size or age. Typified by increased association with females, increased sexual activity, temporal gland secretions and nearly continual urine dribbling, musth has been described as similar to rut in ungulates. Unlike rut, however, musth occurs throughout the year and is asynchronous in a population, so that only a few bulls are in musth concurrently. The mechanisms underlying its onset and duration are not well understood, but age, size and physical condition all affect the likelihood that an individual will experience musth. A single musth period may last from just a few days to over five months, generally increasing as a male ages. Maintaining the condition is energetically costly, thus a male physically declines as it continues.This study explores the potential for chemical signaling between male African elephants via urine dribbling during musth. By examining the temporal patterns of signaling during musth, this study investigates how population level asynchrony of musth may in part be explained by individual economics of maintaining this physiologically expensive condition and of avoiding direct competition with other males in musth. As such, these results may shed additional light on current theories of sexual selection, signaling theory, and male competition strategies. This study also lays the groundwork for future exploration of possible suppression or stimulation of musth in males via urinary signals of musth.