The generalization of the mutation is a natural reaction against poachers, Science reports.
For decades continued poaching has led to the increasing number of elephants being born in south-eastern Mozambique without incisors.
It’s about nature’s reaction to poaching, according to a U.S. science magazine Science on Friday in its latest issue. British newspaper The Guardian in turn, reported on the results of the study as early as Thursday.
“We [ihmiset] we are literally changing the anatomy of wildlife, ”a member of the research team at Princeton University in the United States Robert Pringle said to The Guardian.
Research the target was female elephants living in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique. They have a common genetic mutation that was previously rare: elephants are now born remarkably often without incisors.
Scientists lead the cause of Mozambique’s civil war. In the 1977-1992 war, elephants were killed to an appalling extent by both sides. The sale of ivory financed, among other things, warfare.
The consequences for Mozambican elephants were catastrophic. As much as 90 percent of the elephant population was lost.
Because elephant hunters coveted ivory, they were not interested in toothless elephants. Their chances of survival were thus considerably better than those of their fellow-toothed species.
The share of toothless elephants in the total elephant population increased, and this has had lasting effects. Now, a couple of generations later, a considerable number of elephants without tooth teeth are born in Gorongosa National Park.
There are about 700 elephants in the national park area.
.
#Animals #Research #Mozambique #poaching #elephants #led #increasing #number #elephants #born #incisors
