Sacrifice To Survive: Elephants Let Go Of Tusks To Avoid Poachers, Scientists Say Evolution Driving Change

Due to the excessive poaching, the hard-pressed species of elephants have been evolving to go tusk-less in Africa, says a report by Business Insider.

A few decades back Mozambique used have 2 to 4 per cent of female elephants which were tusk-less, the number has now soared to almost a third of the female population.

Scientists are curiously looking to decipher the genetics of elephants born tusk-less and outcome of this adaptation. In the last century, the African Elephant population has seen a whopping 90 per cent decrease in population size. An estimated 415,000 currently remain.

The demand of ivory is high in Asia and Africa as some believe that it has magical healing properties, even though the claim is scientifically refuted.

In spite of China banning the ivory-trade in 2017, it is the country where it is most sought after and often overvalues gold. It is ground and ingested, it is believed to cure numerous diseases and increase virility, strength and fertility.

The high demand and good prices drive poachers to actively hunt elephants illegally. They leave no way for elephants to escape by attacking them even from helicopters.

Adding to this, the loss of habitat and increasing human-elephant conflicts due to the growth of human population etc have put in danger the life of largest living terrestrial animal.