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Related: About this forumUnder poaching pressure, elephants are evolving to lose their tusks
Elephants with a rare tuskless genetic trait had a better chance of surviving Mozambiques long civil war, financed in part by poached ivory. About a third of surviving elephants daughters have no tusks.Decades ago, some 4,000 elephants lived in Gorongosa, says Joyce Poolean elephant behavior expert and National Geographic Explorer who studies the parks pachyderms. But those numbers dwindled to triple digits following the civil war. New, as yet unpublished, research shes compiled indicates that of the 200 known adult females, 51 percent of those that survived the waranimals 25 years or olderare tuskless. And 32 percent of the female elephants born since the war are tuskless.
A male elephants tusks are bigger and heavier than those of a female of the same age, says Poole, who serves as scientific director of a nonprofit called ElephantVoices. But once theres been heavy poaching pressure on a population, then the poachers start to focus on the older females as well, she explains. Over time, with the older age population, you start to get this really higher proportion of tuskless females.
This tuskless trend isnt limited to Mozambique, either. Other countries with a history of substantial ivory poaching also see similar shifts among female survivors and their daughters. In South Africa, the effect has been particularly extremefully 98 percent of the 174 females in Addo Elephant National Park were reportedly tuskless in the early 2000s.
A male elephants tusks are bigger and heavier than those of a female of the same age, says Poole, who serves as scientific director of a nonprofit called ElephantVoices. But once theres been heavy poaching pressure on a population, then the poachers start to focus on the older females as well, she explains. Over time, with the older age population, you start to get this really higher proportion of tuskless females.
This tuskless trend isnt limited to Mozambique, either. Other countries with a history of substantial ivory poaching also see similar shifts among female survivors and their daughters. In South Africa, the effect has been particularly extremefully 98 percent of the 174 females in Addo Elephant National Park were reportedly tuskless in the early 2000s.
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Under poaching pressure, elephants are evolving to lose their tusks (Original Post)
JHan
Nov 2018
OP
If the hunting of elephant for ivory was recent I would probably agree however they have been hunted
cstanleytech
Nov 2018
#3
If most of the tusked females were killed for their tusks, they will no longer reproduce.
hedda_foil
Nov 2018
#4
Moostache
(9,897 posts)1. That seems very fast for a genetic evolution...
I would like to see the research and data on this trend, but if it holds up that would make evolution far more capable than many assume and would make changing environmental inputs (like climate change) sure to produce some amazing things in the next few decades.
JHan
(10,173 posts)2. yup ++ that's what struck me as well,
that's a very quick suppression of a trait in response to increased poaching pressure. Breath taking actually.
cstanleytech
(26,334 posts)3. If the hunting of elephant for ivory was recent I would probably agree however they have been hunted
for hundreds of years already so really its been an ongoing process.
hedda_foil
(16,375 posts)4. If most of the tusked females were killed for their tusks, they will no longer reproduce.
If mostly tuskless females survive, they're more likely to produce tuskless female babies. I wonder if this reproductive pressure will also lead to tuskless or small-tusked males.
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)5. Mother Nature is Bitchen nt