Registered users: When daylight saving time begins or ends, please change your time zone. This web site can currently not do the change automatically.

Click on "My account", "Edit", scroll down to the time zone setting, select the proper one and click on the [Save] button.

The purpose is to see the correct time above each article and comment.

Musth in Elephants is a period of heightened sexual and aggressive activity characterized by a distinct posture, the musth walk, swollen and secreting temporal glands, the dribbling of strong smelling urine and very low frequency vocalizations, the musth rumble. The point at which males come into musth during the year, how long they can remain in musth, and the numbers of females in estrus around while they are in musth, all contribute to a male’s annual success or failure.

Odile, now in her early 40’s, is estimated to have been born in the 1960’s and is the current matriarch of the OB family. Today the OB family totals to 16 members, with Ottoline [Odile's daughter, born in 1982], being the second oldest female. In 2004 Odile went through a tragic experience when her 2002 male, [two years old calf] was speared by Maasai warriors in Amboseli National Park due to retaliation for reasons which were never comprehended. Not only did Odile lose her calf, she also suffered severe head injuries from spears embedded in her forehead when she was found.

Cynthia Moss, the founder of the Amboseli Elephant Research project, first met the EBs in August 1973. Little male, born in 1968, was son to Emily, a female of the EB family group. By 1983 Little Male was spending less than 20% of his time with the family and thus by our definition he was considered independent. He first came in musth on the 6th June 1999 and has been active since then.

Little male spends most of his time in the Eastern side outside the Amboseli National Park, where conflict is very high due to farming. This year he has been recorded in musth from June to August.

Musth bulls leave bull areas and move after female herds seeking out receptive females in oestrous. Receptive females are fought for, enter into consort and guarded by musth bulls. A fight sometimes is imminent when two musth bulls encounter each other having the same characteristics.

He is a 43 years old bull born in 1965 and one of the best known and studied bulls by the Amboseli Elephant Research Project. Now at 43, he is a fully mature male Elephant and at his prime. A couple of big notches on his left rugged ear are easy marks for his identification but that is not what gets your attention when one encounters a bull of Kalume's beauty. His tusks are a thing to be adored, they are huge, well proportioned and just about the best you would ever find on any African Elephant. Elephant tusks are a mark of their beauty.

The Amboseli Trust for Elephants field team has been forced to open a new eastern front in the continuing war to conserve elephants and the ecosystem.

Human-wildlife conflict is increasing everywhere: human populations burgeon; land use changes erode natural ecosystems. Conflict escalates when sporadic natural events dramatically reduce the availability of food and water for people and animals alike. Long term monitoring and ecosystem surveillance by the Amboseli Elephant Research Project provides early warning of impending natural deficits and alert us to the need for short-term responses to defuse clashes. 2007-08 is likely to be a bad year in Amboseli.

What's a 'bad' year?

Harvey Croze, Soila Sayialel and Keith Lindsay reply …