Selection for Tuskless Elephants | HHMI BioInteractive Video

Working in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Dr. Joyce Poole and colleagues make a striking observation: many female elephants lack tusks.


Most African elephants have tusks, but some–about 2 to 6% of females and even fewer males—never grow them. Elephant tusks are important for obtaining food and water, and essential to male elephants for competing for mates, so there is a strong natural selection for having tusks. But the proportion of tuskless elephants has increased in some populations. In this video Dr. Joyce Poole explains a possible reason. Elephants with large tusks are targeted by poachers who sell the tusks on the ivory market. Poaching is artificially selecting for tuskless elephants who can better survive, mate, and pass on their genes to the next generation. In Gorongosa National Park, Poole found that among the older female elephants, who survived a period of heavy poaching in the park, over 50% are tuskless. Among the younger females, who were born after this period of heavy poaching, 33% are tuskless.

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