Elephants can easily snap bamboo with their trunk and body weight, and it is possible they can do the same with an opponent's tusks. 11. Other studies have also revealed that hunting elephants is having a massive impact on their tusk evolution. However, the one silver lining is that the tuskless elephants appear to be well and healthy. (Nautilus) Learn more about the natural and unnatural history of the African elephant with our video study guide. And that, in itself, is a problem. Because poachers target elephants for their tusks, these years of violence have also had an expecting result: African elephants are evolving to become tuskless. "I have seen makhnas grab the tusks of a tusker and push," says Chelliah. Among Asian elephants, for example, a long history of hunting for ivory—as well as removing tusked elephants from the wild for labor—likely helped contribute to higher tuskless … The tensile strength of the Asian elephant tusk is surprisingly low — some species of bamboo have double the tensile strength of such ivory. The reason Narendhira Arjun gave is not correct but it might be due to his misunderstanding the question. Normally, only 2% to 6% of Africa’s elephants are born tuskless. Because elephants have been extensively hunted for ivory for more than 300 years, natural selection is often proposed as the underlying mechanism for an increase in the proportion of tuskless or small-tusked elephants in a population. However, in South Africa's Addo Elephant National Park, 98% of females are tuskless (Whitehouse, 2001). In 1930 the figure for both male and female elephants was only 1% … Experts say the reason why some elephants are tuskless is a result of a chance genetic mutation. Exactly why the Asian and African elephant populations have such different rates of tusklessness remains unexplained. Now, according to head of the Elephant Voices charity Joyce Poole, in some regions 98% of female elephants have no tusks. Natural selection plus mutations is not evolution. An increasing number of African elephants are now born tuskless because poachers have consistently targetted animals with the best ivory over decades, fundamentally altering the … Whether an elephant develops tusks or not is genetic. Ivory tusks are a blessing and curse for elephants give the elephant a majesty over other animals as well as a unique tool but they have also led to the senseless slaughter of millions of these amazing animals. SCIENCE Tuskless elephants may be a response to the selective pressure of poaching. Discussion Ideas Most African elephants have tusks. Teachers, scroll down for a quick list of key resources in our Teachers Toolkit. 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