The Courtship of Animals

by W. P. Pycraft

ELEPHANTS.

The sexes differ but little in general appearance: and chiefly in the superior size of the male and his more massive tusks.

[Face page 70.

As to actual “courtship” among these animals practically nothing is known; but the varied and formidable weapons which they possess are enough to show that the secondary sexual characters play a very important part in the preliminary capture of mates. That they may also be used for the more prosaic purpose of securing food is nothing to the point. In the Elephant, for example, the tusks are sometimes of enormous size and weight, specimens of eleven feet in length and weighing as much as two hundred and fifty pounds are on record. They are used for cutting through the bark of machabel trees, which is then seized by the trunk and torn off, for elephants are extremely fond of this bark; and they are also turned to account in breaking up roots which have been exposed by digging with the fore-feet. But this is certainly not the main purpose of such weapons. On the contrary, their use is primarily as weapons of offence between rival bulls. As one would expect, they never attain to a very large size in the female, but that they are large enough to serve her at need is shown by the fact that a portion of a tusk, evidently of a cow-elephant, was once found embedded in the jaw of a bull. There can be little doubt but that this was broken off in an endeavour to repel the advances of a too amorous male, for, as with all animals, pairing is impossible without the consent of the female, and this is never accorded until she is desirous that it should take place. As a preliminary to this, an amorous dalliance is perhaps the invariable rule among animals, and this takes many and often strange forms. The Elephant affords a case in point. For the late A. H. Neumann once came upon a pair which were evidently, as he says, “love-making.” Creeping upon them noiselessly, he found the male fondling his mate with his trunk, and then, standing side by side, they crossed their trunks, and put the tips thereof into each other’s mouths, the elephantine form of kissing. Deer, cattle and horses, cats and dogs, constantly lick one another under like circumstances.

Superficial secondary sexual characters are wanting both in the Hippopotamus and the Camel. Both, however, possess a formidable armature of teeth which are capable of inflicting very severe wounds. In the Hippopotamus the canines are of enormous size, and their punishing power is further strengthened by the fact that they work in opposition to a pair of similar teeth in the lower jaw; they cut like a pair of shears, the upper closing upon the lower pair with the precision of scissors-blades. In addition, the lower jaw develops two long, blunt-pointed, ivory spikes, which are scarcely less to be dreaded. With these weapons the bulls fight furiously, and it is no uncommon thing to find vanquished males frightfully mauled, the hide being lacerated from head to tail. Protection, in a measure, is afforded by its enormous thickness, but the great folds and pleats of skin seen in the Rhinoceros are never developed. The females, however, are similarly armed, and the teeth are nearly as large as in the males, which is a rather unusual occurrence.

The Swine, which are near relations of the Hippopotamus, in like manner develop huge pointed canines, and these reach their maximum in the great Wart-hogs of Africa. But in the swine the mechanism differs, for although the canines are closely opposed, the shaft of the upper teeth curves upwards, and the lower teeth are much smaller than the upper. In fighting, these animals do not bite, like the Hippopotamus, but use the upper canines to rip up their antagonist with a sudden, swift upward and sideways movement of the head. How dangerous is the wound thus inflicted those who have hunted the wild-boar know well. A curious exaggeration of this arrangement of the teeth is seen in the Babiroussa. Herein the upper canines grow directly upwards, actually piercing the upper lip as in the case of the downwardly growing tusks of the elephant. That these teeth, however, are of any service in fighting is doubtful, for the upper tooth curves upwards and backwards in a semicircle so that the points are harmless. The tusks of the lower jaw, however, are extremely long and pointed, though their wounding power is limited by reason of the upper teeth. This may account for the fact that the head, the part mostly attacked by enraged boars, presents no sort of armature designed for defence; while in the Wart-hog, on the other hand, great solid bucklers of hide stand out on either side of the head below the eyes, giving the animal a most repulsive appearance, but affording him a very present help in time of trouble. In the wild-boar, where the tusks are shorter, no such protective armature is needed.

Plate 10.

HEAD OF MALE WART-HOG.

In the “Swine” family the canine teeth are always greatly developed, but they attain to their maximum, relatively, in the Wart-hog.