The long elephant teeth we see are called ‘tusks’. In 2021, American scientists found out that because of hunting, African elephants are slowly losing their tusks. The whole world praised this study.
BUT. Almost 10 years back, Indian scientists had said something very similar, that because of hunting, elephants might go tuskless much sooner than expected. Here, I will explain our Indian study in short but to understand the study fully, please see our longer video here.
Females of Asian elephants may have small tusks which we cannot see. Some Asian elephant males have tusks, some dont have them at all.
Having tusks is hereditary. This means that tusked parents are more likely to have tusked male babies.
The ivory we get from these long teeth is very expensive. Hunters select and kill elephants with tusks for ivory.
Because these tusked males which get hunted are getting killed by hunters at a younger age, will produce fewer tusked babies in their entire life.
And because having tusks is hereditary, fewer tusked males are being born in every generation.
So please - do not buy ivory products. These products do not have anything precious in them. The teeth look much better on the elephants.
Our Indian study didn’t get as much attention as the American study. But we can definitely understand the work of our scientists, right?! This is what will motivate them! :)
And follow us on social media, which will motivate us! We will meet soon, with another piece of ecology, explained!