Rampant Poaching Forces Elephants to Evolve to Not Have Tusks, Study Finds

[Jilly_in_VA]

Elephants in Mozambique are evolving away from having tusks due to pressure from rampant poaching over decades, according to a daunting new study.

Published in the journal Science on Friday, the report from researchers across departments at Princeton University, the non-profit ElephantVoices, Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, and the University of Idaho, analyzed survey data that suggests natural selection has favored tusklessness in female elephants—a rare genetic trait that has become more common—amid high rates of poaching and population decline.

The researchers took scans of the entire elephant genome and located two genes associated with tooth development in mammals, both of which guide the formation of enamel, dentin, and other materials necessary for tooth and tusk development. One of the genes—AMELX, which provides instructions for the creation of a protein called amelogenin—was found to be associated with selection pressure due to poaching.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qjbdnp/rampant-poaching-forces-elephants-to-evolve-to-not-have-tusks-study-finds

[Bayard]

1. Afraid it can't happen soon enough

[Hekate]

5. Unfortunately, they have need of their tusks

[Crunchy Frog]

6. Apparently not having them is an even more pressing need right now.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. I suppose you could say 'evolve' but it's very much UN-natural selection

And it sure sucks that it's happening

[intrepidity]

3. I also don't like the use of "evolve" in this context

It would be so much more accurate to say that the elephant population is reflecting a man-made selective pressure.

Using "evolve" evokes a Lamarkian transformation, IMHO.

[Ka-Dinh Oy]

4. Kind of like a man made global warming on elephant tusks.

[Hekate]

7. Rattlesnakes without their warning system are showing up in numbers...

I found out because a neighbor took her dog to a special training class to learn how to identify them by smell.

Rattlesnakes are something else being selected out by human behavior — we’ve finally managed to ignorantly kill enough of them that warn us of their presence that the survivors are virtually silent.