What is ivory tusks of elephant

Here are the fast facts Elephants are most known for their ivory, but other animals like the walrus, hippopotamus, narwhal, sperm whale and warthog also have tusks or teeth that are made up of a similar chemical structure.

The word ivory is used to identify any mammalian tooth or tusk that is of commercial interest. No, rhino horns are made of keratin—the same substance found in human hair and nails. Although they are not ivory, rhinos are still poached for their horns. Elephants are usually killed before the removal of their tusks, but sometimes they don't die immediately. Imagine if a dentist removed your canine tooth without any numbing medication Elephants feel an immense amount of pain if someone cuts off their tusks.

Tusks are deeply rooted incisors with nerve endings. When severed, those nerve endings are exposed and can easily become infected, leading to death.

Across the world, ivory is viewed as a status symbol. Historically, it was used to produce ornaments, figurines, and small carvings, as well as items like jewelry, piano keys, and chess sets. Traditional medicine also views ivory as a healing element, using ivory powder to create medicine for a variety of illnesses. In the first decade of the 21st century, there was evidence of demand for ivory as an inflation-proof investment commodity, though recent trading restrictions, especially in China, seem to have reduced this pressure.

Rangers, employed to protect the wildlife, are often killed alongside the elephants. During this time from on, they were governed by a hunting quota system. In , Kenya along with the United States successfully lobbied for African elephants to be listed under Appendix I, banning all legal ivory trade.

However, source countries like South Africa and Namibia, along with consumer countries like China, have opposed the ivory trade ban, and pushed for ivory sales to continue. A few such sales have been allowed in recent years. Other countries, like the U. In the last few years, the Obama Administration has issued a series of executive orders limiting ivory trade. Though the regulations do not restrict personal possession of ivory, they prohibit sale and trade African ivory with only a few exceptions items containing fewer than grams of ivory and artifacts over years old when presented along with verification.

The future of African elephant populations is tenuous, as poaching continues at high rates. Because of the political and economic difficulties faced by many African nations, the majority of conservation efforts have focused on limiting demand for ivory.

The United States, however, seems to be moving in a singular direction toward increased protections and trade restrictions. Sam B. Edwards, 7 Animal L. In elephants, these incisors continue to grow throughout their lives, extending from deep within their upper jaw. The tusks are one of the most noticeable features of elephants, along with their massive body size and long trunk one of the most amazing and versatile appendages in the animal world — but that is another story.

In African elephants both males and females have tusks, while in Asian elephants only the males do. While our incisors are used only for biting food, elephants use theirs for a whole range of activities , from digging holes and stripping bark from trees to fighting.

Generally speaking, male elephants use their impressive size to intimidate rivals and impress females. Size is so important in attracting mates that adult males have evolved to be twice as large as adult females, reaching a whopping seven metric tonnes. This is the weight of four family cars — with passengers. As part of the package, male elephant tusks are often five to seven times as large as those of adult females. Some of the largest tusks ever recorded belonged to an old elephant called Ahmed , who lived in Kenya until the ripe old age of His tusks were 3m in length and weighed 67kg each.

That is 5kg more than the average weight of an adult human. Certain lizards, for example, prefer to make their homes in trees roughed up or knocked over by browsing elephants. If elephants are changing where they live, how quickly they move, or where they go, it could have larger implications for the ecosystems around them.

Now, Long and a team of ecology and genetic researchers are starting to study how tuskless elephants are navigating their lives. In June, the team started tracking six adult females in Gorongosa—half with tusks, half not—from three different breeding herds. Elephants are highly social and form tight family groups. Their goal is to uncover more information about how these animals move, eat, and what their genomes look like.

Long hopes to detail how elephants without the benefit of tusks as tools may alter their behavior to get access to nutrients. Another collaborator, Shane Campbell-Staton, an evolutionary biologist at the University of California Los Angeles, will study blood, searching for answers about how genetics influences the phenomenon of tusklessness.

Tusklessness does seem to occur disproportionately among females. Joyce Poole corroborates this. Perhaps the elephants are targeting different kinds of trees that are easier to strip, or trees that have already had some stripping by other elephants—giving them a prepared leverage point for tearing off bark. Recent bans on the ivory trade in China and the U.

Among Asian elephants , for example, a long history of hunting for ivory—as well as removing tusked elephants from the wild for labor—likely helped contribute to higher tuskless numbers there. Exactly why the Asian and African elephant populations have such different rates of tusklessness remains unexplained.

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