Elephants evolving to be born without tusks thanks to ruthless poachers

About 90% of elephants living in Mozambiques Gorongosa National Park were slaughtered for their tusks by poachers during Mozambique's 15-year civil war that ended in 1992. The poachers then profited by selling the tusks to finance weapons. As a result, we're now seeing a growing population of elephants in the country born without tusks. Tuskless females, for instance, have jumped from 2%-4% of the population to around 33%.

According to National Geographic:

Hunting gave elephants that didnt grow tusks a biological advantage in Gorongosa. Recent figures suggest that about a third of younger femalesthe generation born after the war ended in 1992never developed tusks. Normally, tusklessness would occur only in about 2 to 4 percent of female African elephants.

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 New, as yet unpublished, research shes compiled indicates that of the 200 known adult females, 51 percent of those that survived the waranimals 25 years or olderare tuskless.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.

Sadly, this isn't the only population of elephants losing their numbers and their tusks to poachers. In South Africa, "fully 98 percent of the 174 females in Addo Elephant National Park were reportedly tuskless in the early 2000s."

Used to defend themselves, as well as for digging, protecting their trunk, and helping them strip bark from trees in order to eat, tusks are enlarged incisor teeth that are essential to their daily well-being. Read the rest