Male-male Aggression in Asian Elephant Observed in Similipal Tiger Reserve, Orissa

Abstract

Near Upper Barha Kamuda Range Office in South Similipal two elephants were killed in male-male fights, one in the morning of 28 Feb, 1994 and the other in the night of 01 March, 1994. Evidences from the sites of fights and the noises heard have enabled to construct the scenes of fight and offer reasons to such aggression in Elephant. The fights involved chasing, circular movements due to locked-in tusks, and goring into the body of the victim in the anal region, lower abdomen and behind the ear. Noises included trumpets and water splashes. A probable musth condition of the victor -the older bull, and the enhancing mating urge of the growing-up tuskers are expected to have led to aggressions. It was perhaps worsened by the availability of a less number of receptive mating partners. It was not known for how long each battle had already been fought before coming to the notice. The victor took about two days to locate, fight and kill the second bull after killing the first. In the wild it is always not possible to detect a male-male fight. Such male-male fights and kills are viewed as natural mechanisms allowing the best bull to enter into reproduction for continuance of the race.