![]() ![]() ![]() The researchers looked carefully under the top lip of the elephants to make sure the tusks had not just broken off. "Some people thought it might be hormonal or a response to stress," Professor Pringle said. While some thought this was a case of evolution - a small pool of naturally tuskless elephants being more likely to survive the poachers and pass their genes on to the next generation - others disagreed. "In places where there's been a lot of poaching and conflict, there seem to be more tuskless female elephants," said study co-author and ecologist Robert Pringle of Princeton University in New Jersey. Unlike their Asian counterparts, most female African elephants have tusks.īut over the years there has been concern that ivory hunting was influencing whether or not the elephants had tusks. A new study, published today in Science, provides powerful evidence that human activities are driving rapid evolution of animals.Ī population of African bush elephants in Mozambique was found to have adapted to poaching by losing their tusks over a matter of decades.Īnd while losing tusks might have helped the elephants survive, there's concern this will also come at a cost. ![]()
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