Tuskless Elephants (1 Viewer)

[Andy Adcock]

Very interesting.......

Mozambique: Tuskless elephant evolution linked to ivory hunting

Scientists say poaching during Mozambique's civil war led to more females being born without tusks.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[mummymonkey]

40 years seems an awfully short time to be saying anything at all about evolution in elephants.

 

[Farnboro John]

40 years seems an awfully short time to be saying anything at all about evolution in elephants.

Its not. Its saying something about selection pressure. If you shoot all the tusked elephants, it turns out you destroy their normal breeding impact on the future elephant population. (Surprise!) And it says selection pressure can act very quickly indeed when it is applied not only by Nature but with all the ruthless selfishness of the human race.

John

 

[lgonz1008]

As sad as I'll be that eventually my kids and grandkids won't be able to see a wild elephant with tusks, I'd rather they have a chance to see wild elephants period.

I know this is a stop gap nature has made for this animal and hopefully the genes for tusks will eventually come back in the population, but here's to the hope that these creatures are no longer persecuted for a body part they no longer have.