Mate searching behaviour of elephant bulls in a semi-arid environment

In the wet season, African elephant (Loxodonta africana Blumenbach) bulls switched from a strategy associated with feeding to one where the travelled long distances in search of oestrous females. Bulls which associated with cows behaved quite differently from other bulls. In sparse elephant populations a bull may have a greater chance of associating with an oestrous female if he lives permanently with a group of cows (the traditional concept of the herd bull) instead of searching for receptive cows during the mating season.