CDZ Elephants born with no TUSKS after decades of brutal poaching in Africa, researchers say

[flacaltenn]

I agree, but read a similar article by Nature about same thing- elephants born without tusks due to poaching.

“In Mozambique, the selective poaching of elephants with tusks has led to a higher number of females being born without them.”

Ivory hunting drives evolution of tuskless elephants

In Mozambique, the selective poaching of elephants with tusks has led to a higher number of females being born without them.

www.nature.com

May all ruthless poachers step off cliffs to their deaths.

I think the deal here is that both you and HereWeGoAgain are right.. The OPost article states that THIS genetic mutation was ALREADY showing up before the massive poaching. So all of the series of REQUIRED mutations HAD HAPPENED over centuries or a millenium.. And the "survival bias" just ACCELERATED that process by a wee bit or more than that.

And I BELIEVE they stated this applied only to FEMALES. Think the males are STUCK with this unless the genome changes to pass on the trait to males.

 

[flacaltenn]

Nobody is out there selectively breeding elephants.

Maybe they should bio-engineer tuskless elephants? Move all the tusked ones into reserves???? Those are questions -- not opinions.

Would make an interesting KickStarter (crowd funding) page. You could come ride a genetically engineered tuskless male elephant as your return on investment?

Just sayin'..

 

[surada]

I think the deal here is that both you and HereWeGoAgain are right.. The OPost article states that THIS genetic mutation was ALREADY showing up before the massive poaching. So all of the series of REQUIRED mutations HAD HAPPENED over centuries or a millenium.. And the "survival bias" just ACCELERATED that process by a wee bit or more than that.

And I BELIEVE they stated this applied only to FEMALES. Think the males are STUCK with this unless the genome changes to pass on the trait to males.

If you kill the big bull elephants with large tusks, you take them out of the gene pool. Is NOT just females that are being born without tusks or small tusks.