BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese elephants are evolving into an increasingly tuskless breed because poaching is changing the gene pool, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Five to 10 percent of Asian elephants in China now had a gene that prevented the development of tusks, up from the usual 2 to 5 percent, the China Daily said, quoting research from Beijing Normal University.
"The larger tusks the male elephant has, the more likely it will be shot by poachers," said researcher Zhang Li, an associate professor of zoology. "Therefore, the ones without tusks survive, preserving the tuskless gene in the species."
Since only male elephants have tusks, there were now four female elephants for each male in China, up from the ideal ratio of two, the paper said.
Similar changes in elephant tusk development and sex ratios have been reported in Africa and India.
Seriously though, its not good that they are being forced to throw away thier natural defences against other animals in the wild because of humans hunting them....
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well, they (from my understanding) only realy use their tusks on eachother in territorial and mating battles. their size and power are used to defend against other animals. so, if the other elephants dont have tusks, then what would be the purpose of tusks? of coarse, there will always be elephants born with tusks, even if a sharp minority, imho. so once the poaching stops...if it stops, the tusked elephants would always win the mating battle and thus a reversal of this evolution...right?
Indeed, Rattlesnakes too are evolving without rattles because the rattle gives away what Kind of snake they are and ignorant people Kill snakes so...Just what I heard on Animal planet
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It's amazing, really, the shabby minds of these poachers and their obsession with making a profit at the expense of poor animals. A sickening case is with the Siberian tigers-- they're almost an extinct species because people think their fur is a blessed object from God and that they must have it.
The same thing with the Chinese searing the dorsal fins off of the local water sharks.
I would love to see those a**holes get their comeuppances when one of the elephants rears its tusks straight into the poacher's stomach.
KMC Community Forums
Jul 19th, 2005 01:23 PM
next comes the human circus act
