TwistedSifter

How Not Growing Tusks Saved These Elephants’ Lives

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During Mozambique‘s fifteen years of civil war, 90 percent of the elephant population of Gorongosa National Park was annihilated because their valuable ivory husks were needed to finance the conflict. As a result, most of the surviving species have a rare natural trait, tusklessness.

The fascinating video examines the devastating effects of ivory poaching, how tusklessness is passed on, and why it’s only present in females.

Perhaps most importantly, it highlights the troubling fact that human conflict is literally changing the way animals look.

For more, check out the Gorongosa National Park (GNP) Elephant Ecology Project.

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