Evolution: Elephant Females Are Born Without Tusks

Elephants use their tusks as a tool. If they can't, it will affect the local ecosystem. By poaching becoming there are more and more elephant females born without tusks . It is an example of rapid evolution, caused by humans.

This sad balance is the result of years of unparalleled Ivory poaching caused the rapid evolution of hitlessness among African elephants.

In Mozambique, a civil war raged between 1977 and 1992, accompanied by a lot of ivory hunting. In Gorongosa National Park, the number of elephants and other large grazers decreased by more than 90 percent during that period. Based on old video footage, researchers saw that this decline seemed to be associated with a tripling of the number of tuskless females among elephants: that rate increased from 18.5 percent to 50.9 percent after the war.To see if that increase was due to natural selection for hereditary properties, the researchers studied the elephant genome. For example, they found two gene sites known to be involved in the development of mammalian teeth, which can explain tusklessness.

'We want to sell elephant tusks again'
Ivory trade is banned, but a few African countries prefer to see it differently. They want to be able to sell elephant tusks again.

Tusk elephants can be essential for ecosystem recovery. They are used, among other things, to search for food underground, and to peel trees. As these trees then die, there are open spaces that can accommodate other species. A lack of tusks can therefore lead to denser afforestation and even a decrease in biodiversity. Thus, the gradual disappearance of the female tusks could cause natural restoration efforts to be affected and delayed, the authors warn. “Elephants are ecosystem engineers,” says Schilthuizen. “They pull over whole trees with their tusks. So if there are fewer females with tusks, then that will certainly have an effect on the structure of the landscape.”
Source: Science