Sexing

Male (left) and female (right) live elephants. From Kangwana (1996) “Studying Elephants”.

The sex of a dead elephant can be determined by examining the animal’s body, skull and/or tusks.

Telling apart a male from a female living elephant can be challenging even for an experienced observer. The confidence and accuracy deteriorates and becomes worse when recording a dead elephant. Many elephant death reports show the wrong sex because of hasty conclusions by an informant or reporter – for instance, reports show the animal was male if tusks are long and not necessarily thick, or other reports indicate the dead animal is female if the tusks are ‘small’ or ‘short’. You should collect as much data as possible to make a determination, using as many characters as possible.

Success in sexing the individual depends on what remains at the site:

• A fresh body can have visible external genitalia or other signs;
• Older carcasses’ sex can be determined from the whole skull or the lower jaw;
• If all you had were tusks, with the base intact, these are also sufficient!

Fresh body

If you have a complete fresh body, you may be able to determine sex using external characteristics.

Caution   Soft external genitalia are the first body part consumed by mammalian scavengers – these may disappear or be modified very quickly after death. Facial features are often cut by poachers. Use tusk or skull features unless you have a very complete body to examine.

Part	Male	Female	Notes
Genitalia	Located between the legs, with opening facing forwards	Located between the legs with opening facing directly downwards towards the the foot of animal	See diagram below. Visible only on a fresh carcass with little or no scavenger activity.
	Erect penis may be clearly visible – facing forwards and usually very long (1m +).	Erect vulva tip (clitoris) may protrude some centimetres from the opening.
Face	Swollen tusk base in males above 18 years.	No swollen tusks base for all age groups.
Forehead	No sunken temples and broad forehead	Sunken temples in older adult females (above 25 years) only. Edged foreheads for all age groups
Nipples	Nipples present between front forelegs but not swelling of mammary glands	Nipples present between front legs but no swelling of mammary for females below 10 years of age
Belly fold	Not present in males of any age	Visible on females above 20 years old, more prominent with older females
Back bone	Slopes from shoulder to rump; relatively short; visible in sub-adults and adults#	Elongated back, visible on females above 15 years old; hunched, becoming prominent with age	Almost impossible to see on animal that is not standing.

Tusks

Whole tusks are the best clues for determining the gender of a dead elephant, but are not very often found intact! The appearance and shape of tusks normally begins to show differences between the sexes before an elephant becomes five year old. With experience it can become easy to tell the tusks apart – but you should practice watching live elephants to see as many examples as possible.

Where at least the base and socket of the tusks are present (i.e. the first 80 cm) the shape is a reliable indicator of sex of the elephant. This can also be used on tusks in the storeroom or confiscated tusks.

• Male tusks taper from the base of the socket onwards, and this difference is noticeable at the ‘lip line’ of the tusk.
• Female tusks have little or no difference in circumference between socket and lip line.

Generally, males have larger tusks thank females of the same age. Male tusks tend to be thicker, and more tapering or cone shaped, while female tusks are more uniform circumference or roundish in shape. These are the basic characteristics used for telling the sexes apart. Tuskless adult elephants are normally female.

Part	Male	Female	Notes
Shape	Curved from inside the socket on the skull; this is observable from 3 years	Curved starts some lengthafter the lip bone	Assuming that the tusks are present or recovered
	Attenuated from tip to base i.e. narrow to broad	Standard diameter along most of the tusk
Circumference	Circumference at lip line smaller that of its base; this is true for males aged 3 years and above	Circumference at lip line equal or almost equal to that of its base	Measure at the lip base using a piece of string, then move up to the base of the tusk (where it was inside the socket) and measure again. If wider, male; if the same width, female.#

Skull

The skull of elephant consists of the upper and lower mandibles or jaws. When complete i.e. if not chopped off or disintegrated, the skull is another useful source of clues about the gender of a dead elephant. However, if the upper mandible is chopped off or disfigured, then lip bone, at the front of the lower jaw, can give a clear indication of the sex of the elephant.

Part	Male	Female	Notes
Tusk cavity	Curved upwards from opening to base. This is observable on individuals aged 3 years and above.	Cavity is straight, not curved from opening to base
Nasal base	No depression visible until 17 years of age.A deep bowl-like depression from age 18 to 30; Above 30 year of age,  the bowl first deepens and then splits into two with a cavity forming on each side of the bowl.The splits become clear cavities after age 40.	No depression until 20 years.The shallow bowl develops from age 21 and become prominent with age but does not split as in the male

Lower jaw

The lip bone (circled in red in image opposite) of the lower jaw shows distinct differences between male and female.

• Male lip bones tend to be stronger

Perspective	Male	Female
From above	From above: Long, thick and attenuated as observable  in males from age 3.	Narrow, slender and elongated. Does not attenuate as in males.
From the side	Lip bone stays level with bottom of jaw or turns downwards.	Lip bone shorter and turns upwards as it thins.