Thread by @TelegraphWorld

🐘 Elephants are evolving to be tuskless after decades of rampant poaching in Africa, researchers have discovered

Read the full story from @_Will_Brown ⬇️🧵
telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…

❌The rare tuskless genetic condition in Gorongosa National Park in central Mozambique has become far more common after years of ivory hunters devastating the species

Around 90% of the country’s elephant population were slaughtered between 1977 to 1992 by Kalashnikov-wielding armed groups for ivory to fund a bloody Cold War-era conflict.

🐘The survivors were likely to share a key characteristic: half the females were naturally tuskless

🧬Like eye color in humans, genes are responsible for whether elephants inherit tusks from their parents

After the war, those tuskless surviving females passed on their genes with expected, as well as surprising, results.

About half their daughters were tuskless. More perplexing, two-thirds of their offspring were female.

However, it is not all good news.

The trait is only seen in female elephants and researchers said that genetic sequencing shows that the trait is linked to a mutation in the X chromosome, which can be fatal to male elephants in the womb.

This means that while the tuskless trait could be useful for elephants when facing poachers, it could also account for lower than normal breeding rates.

There are now about 700 elephants left in the national park.

Read more ⬇️
telegraph.co.uk/global-health/…