Editing Musth (section)

==Biology==
Musth has been known in [[Asian elephant]]s for 3000 years (described in the [[Rigveda]] 1500–1000 B.C.) but was recognized in [[African elephant]]s only in the late twentieth century.<ref name=Sukumar>{{cite book |title=The living elephants: evolutionary ecology, behavior, and conservation |last=Sukumar |first=R |year=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press|location= USA|isbn= 9780195107784 |url=https://archive.org/details/livingelephantse00suku_0 |url-access=registration |quote=temporin elephant. |access-date=2010-12-25}}</ref>{{rp|101}}

In 1975, scientists [[Joyce Poole]] and [[Cynthia Moss]] were working in [[Amboseli National Park]], Kenya. Poole noticed a period of heightened reproductive activity and aggression in male African elephants. She began documenting and describing the physical and behavioral characteristics and temporal (time-related) dynamics among individual males. This led to scientifically identifying musth in African elephants.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Poole |first1=Joyce H. |last2=Moss |first2=Cynthia J. |date=August 1981 |title=Musth in the African elephant, Loxodonta africana |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/292830a0 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=292 |issue=5826 |pages=830–831 |doi=10.1038/292830a0 |pmid=7266649 |bibcode=1981Natur.292..830P |s2cid=4337060 |issn=1476-4687|url-access=subscription }}</ref>  
[[File:Two bulls matching testosterone levels..jpg|thumb|An African elephant chases a [[giraffe]] during musth.]]
Musth is also suggested to have occurred in [[mammoth]]s, given the testosterone histories from their tusks.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Cherney |first1=Michael D. |last2=Fisher |first2=Daniel C. |last3=Auchus |first3=Richard J. |last4=Rountrey |first4=Adam N. |last5=Selcer |first5=Perrin |last6=Shirley |first6=Ethan A. |last7=Beld |first7=Scott G. |last8=Buigues |first8=Bernard |last9=Mol |first9=Dick |last10=Boeskorov |first10=Gennady G. |last11=Vartanyan |first11=Sergey L. |last12=Tikhonov |first12=Alexei N. |date=2023-05-18 |title=Testosterone histories from tusks reveal woolly mammoth musth episodes |url=https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06020-9 |journal=Nature |language=en |volume=617 |issue=7961 |pages=533–539 |doi=10.1038/s41586-023-06020-9 |pmid=37138076 |bibcode=2023Natur.617..533C |s2cid=258485513 |issn=0028-0836|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Musth-like behaviour is also suggested to have occurred in South American [[gomphotheres]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=El Adli |first1=Joseph J. |last2=Fisher |first2=Daniel C. |last3=Cherney |first3=Michael D. |last4=Labarca |first4=Rafael |last5=Lacombat |first5=Frédéric |date=July 2017 |title=First analysis of life history and season of death of a South American gomphothere |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S1040618216302634 |journal=Quaternary International |language=en |volume=443 |pages=180–188 |doi=10.1016/j.quaint.2017.03.016|bibcode=2017QuInt.443..180E |url-access=subscription }}</ref> and North American [[mastodon]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Miller |first1=Joshua H. |last2=Fisher |first2=Daniel C. |last3=Crowley |first3=Brooke E. |last4=Secord |first4=Ross |last5=Konomi |first5=Bledar A. |date=2022-06-21 |title=Male mastodon landscape use changed with maturation (late Pleistocene, North America) |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |language=en |volume=119 |issue=25 |pages=e2118329119 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2118329119 |doi-access=free |issn=0027-8424 |pmc=9231495 |pmid=35696566|bibcode=2022PNAS..11918329M }}</ref>

Musth differs from [[Rut (mammalian reproduction)|rut]] in that musth most often takes place in winter, whereas the female elephant's [[estrus]] cycle is not seasonally linked.<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.upali.ch/musth_en.html | title=Musth of the elephant bulls – Upali.ch| date=9 November 2016}}</ref>