Why did the elephant lose his tusks?
EVOLUTION is helping the elephant to fight back against poachers. More male elephants are now being born without tusks because hunting of the animals for their ivory is reducing the gene pool, a study in China shows. The tusk-free gene, which is found in between 2 and 5 per cent of male Asian elephants, has increased to between 5 and 10 per cent in elephants in China, according to the study by Zhang Li, an associate professor of zoology at Beijing Normal University. “This decrease in the number of elephants born with tusks shows the poaching pressure for ivory on the animal,” said Mr Zhang, who has been conducting research since 1999 at a nature reserve in the lush southwestern Xishuangbanna region, where two thirds of China’s Asian elephants live. Unlike African elephants, only the male Asian elephant has tusks, which he uses as a weapon to fight for territory. But the they are prized by hunters and regarded by Chinese as a symbol of masculinity.
