Searching for a mate proved all too tiring for this elephant bull - who was seen resting his head against a tree in India.

The exhausted jumbo appeared to have been overcome with the stress of finding a suitable female when he was filmed roaming around the woodlands in the Jim Corbett National Park in Ramnagar, Uttarakhand on May 2.

He appeared like many frustrated bachelor, banging his head against a solid object trying to understand the movements of his romantic target.

Footage taken by a visiting tourist shows how the sides of the bull's head were stained with a fluid called temporin which the creatures secrete during 'musth' - a period of elevated testosterone levels associated with the elephants' rutting season.

Onlooker Sourabh Garg said: 'Seeing the wild animal in musth resting in its natural habitat was truly amazing.'

Male elephants or bulls periodically enter this state and display aggressive behaviour, resulting in clashes between adult males. They sometimes rub the temporin discharge off on tree trunks to signal their condition to other elephants.

They also produce a scene that attracts females.