Elephant Reproductive Behavior

     As aforementioned in this blog, elephants are social animals. It is very common for females to live with each other, and with their offspring for the entirety of their lives. Furthermore, many female elephants (AKA cows) live with their daughters, and then their offspring. On the other hand, male elephants (AKA bulls) tend to branch off around the age of 12. They tend to live alone, or with a smaller number of other bulls.

     When it comes to mating, there is a very small amount of time (a few days) that the female elephants can become impregnated. This occurs around four times a year once the female is at sexual maturity, at around 12 years of age. Her readiness is signaled to the male elephants by an odor that she exudes, along with vocal calls. Male elephants also reach peak testosterone levels multiple times a year (known as being in musth). This is signaled to females by their urine, and also their vocal calls. Female elephants will almost always pick a male who is in musth over one that isn’t.

      Elephant mating is a mutual process. Once the two elephants determine that they are both physically ready to mate, the bull will begin to “flirt” with the cow. She will usually pay no attention to him for a few minutes. If she is not interested, she can get away seeing as cows are quicker than bulls. If she is interested, she will begin to reciprocate the flirting. This flirting is done mostly with the trunks. The elephants will intertwine their trunks, and may put their trunks in each others mouths. To mate, the elephants leave the herd to be alone. After mating (which only takes a few minutes), the elephants may stay together for up to two weeks and continue to display affectionate behaviors towards one another. It is not uncommon for same-sex bonding and sexual encounters to occur in elephants.

This is a picture I took in South Africa of elephants showing standard mating behaviors with their trunks.

     After a female is impregnated, her gestation period is around 22 months. As previously mentioned, elephants begin breeding around 12 years of age, which is when they become sexually mature. Female elephants reproduce every 4-9 years, and rarely have twins. When an elephant is ready to give birth, the other females in the herd will circle around her. The birthing process takes around 2 hours. After the birth of the newborns, the mother closely and tenderly cares for her offspring. The newborns remain in constant contact with their mothers for the first year of their lives, and continue to remain very near to them for the next eight years! When the young elephants reach sexual maturity, the males will go off on their own, whereas the females may remain near their mothers for 50 years. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant#Mating
http://nature-wildlife.com/eletxt.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4574022_elephants-mate.html