Elephant Bonding

[Sabyasachi Patra]

This image was taken in Bandipur. Same herd that charged. The one at the centre is a female, wrongly identified as male in one of the previous threads.
http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4039#post4039

The one at the right had charged us previously. After we had taken the jeep back, she also joined the charge.

Canon EOS 1D Mark II, Canon EF 28-135mm, f3.5-5.6 IS USM, full frame, ISO 400, 90mm, f5.6, 1/250mm.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Bibhav Behera]

Nice intimate moment captured... the middel female seems to have a tumour on the left side

[AB Apana]

If I'm not mistaken the previous image showed the secretion from the left temple as well. Can anybody throw light on this? Perhaps Vikram?

Apana

[Vikram Nanjappa]

In the African Elephant both male and female are known to come into musth. Musth in the female Asian Elephant is rare but not unknown.In one of the recorded instances of musth in female Asian elephants , the female was found to be in a pronounced state of estrous, this was a captive elephant so it was easy to ascertain.Not so easy to ascertain in the wild. To better understand musth in Asian Elephants please refer to my Elephant Mating Game Part -1 and Part 2 posts. Please read both parts together. I had to break it up into two posts as it had exceeded the limits.

This is a valuable photograph as it clearly shows a wild female Asian elephant in musth.

[AB Apana]

Thanks Vikram, will be reading your article with interest.

Apana

[Kiran Ghadge]

thats very informative...lovely image Sabyasachi. Nice moment