Sunday, January 20, 2008

Man-Made Evolution - Demise of the Big Tusker


It's taken a century and a half of intensive poaching, but the days of the Big Tusker seem to be at an end.

The world's elephant population has evolved much smaller tusks, half as small as the norm just 150-years ago. The phenomenon has been recorded among both African and Indian elephants. From Environmental News Network:

"Experts believe the rapid evolution of the massive land mammals is due to poaching. Zoologists from Oxford University suggest that ivory poachers, who go for the largest males with the largest tusks, have caused the breeding behaviors of the animals to change rapidly in a short time.

"The largest male African elephants have the largest tusks. These tusks are extremely important in elephant behavior, with the largest tusks usually resulting in more successful intimidation of smaller males or winning fights for female elephants. But when the largest animals are killed, it changes the breeding patterns of the animals. In short, without the largest males for competition, the smaller males with their smaller tusks will breed more successfully, and their offspring will have smaller tusks."

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