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  3. Trunk-to-Genitals

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Trunk-to-Genitals

Reaching of the trunk to touch, or near touch the genitals of another. Trunk-to-Genitals is a common behavior and occurs between elephants of all age/sex groups in a broad range of contexts. It is likely that such behaviour is often related to assessment of physical or sexual state, such as male assessment of female receptivity and female and male assessment of male musth state, or assessing the physical state of an infant.

Media caption

In slo-mo: A young adult male gm0049 approaches large adult female Valente, gf0013, who is Urinating. He reaches his Trunk-to-Genitals under her belly, though we cannot see very well. (Gorongosa, Mozambique)

Other examples of the behavior