Younger male elephants can be big “bullies”. Carrie Straight 05.03.01 Younger male elephants are big “bullies” unless older males are around.    In South Africa when young male African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are reintroduced into new areas, the young males became aggressive and even killed other animals including more than 40 (!) white rhinoceroses (Ceratotherium simum). In nature, older males usually keep younger ones from mating, so they don’t display as much aggressive behavior. The researchers discovered that these younger elephants were behaving more like older male elephants, except that they were killing other animals. Older males do not normally attack and kill other animals unless they are trying to defend themselves. Musth is when elephants act aggressive and have increased levels of reproductive hormones. The young elephants introduced to new parks without older males would start musth when they were 18 years old. In normal family groups, “young” males don’t enter musth until they are between 25 and 30 years old.     These researchers wanted to test if having older male elephants around would delay a young male’s musth cycle and reduce their mean, bullying attitude. The researchers watched a group of young male elephants (the same ones that were killing the rhinos) and recorded their behavior. By doing this, they estimated the amount of time the elephants spent in musth (elephant behaviors are very different between when they are or are not in musth). Then they rounded up some older male elephants and put them in the same place as the young elephants and again recorded all of their behavior. The scientists compared the young elephants’ behaviors before and after the older male elephants were around. By doing this experiment, researchers discovered younger males were in musth less often when the old guys were around, and furthermore, the younger males didn’t kill as many rhinos. Slotow, Rob, Gus vanDyk, Joyce Poole, Bruce Page, and Andre Klocke. 2000. Older bull elephants control young males. Nature 408: 425-426. ©2001 The Aurora Collection, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Site Development by: Interactive Multimedia. Inc.