Mature male African and Asian elephants periodically experience a rut-like state called musth, involving elevated serum testosterone, swollen and draining temporal glands, urine dribbling, lowered appetite, increased aggression, and enhanced reproductive success. In Asian elephants, proteins play transport and sequestering roles before pheromone interactions with sensory receptors. Frontalin, a chemical signal of musth in older males, is linked to albumin in the temporal gland secretion. Likewise, Z-7-dodecen-1-yl acetate, the preovulatory urinary pheromone, is bound to urinary albumin. We have analyzed elephant urine samples during different stages of musth for total protein content using the Bradford quantitative protein assay. The method is highly sensitive and accurate to extremely low protein concentrations, down to approximately 1 microgram protein per milliliter of urine. The results provide correlation of the protein concentrations released into the urine with the periodic musth episode and possibly some insight into the role of these proteins.

Elephant urine protein concentrations during different stages of musth

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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