Researchers from the organization Save the Elephants* have discovered what is believed to be the first publicly documented case of a male African elephant born without tusks in Kenya. “The discovery challenges consolidated genetic evidence that suggests that only women are born without fangs,” explains the organization, announcing the publication of a scientific study in the journal Pachyderm. The now 13-year-old, tuskless specimen was first spotted in 2011 as a juvenile in the Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya. Although researchers continued to monitor her progress, she never grew any semblance of fangs, a feature that typically appears after two years.
The research team that led to the discovery also included the Italian Giacomo D'Ammando, 32 years old, who has lived in Africa for more than 10 years after studying and obtaining a doctorate in animal ecology: “This observation contradicts recent genetic findings.” Studies , which shed light on the hereditary mechanism that determines the absence of tusks in African elephants and which suggest that males cannot live without tusks (unlike females, who are often born without tusks and inherit this trait from their mothers ),” he tells Corriere della Sera. In this case – he adds – “the specimen was born from a mother without tusks and it is therefore likely that the absence of tusks is also a hereditary trait in males… This will lead us to test the generally accepted hypotheses .” . Female elephants without tusks have been shown to have an advantage in situations of high pressure from ivory poaching because they avoid being killed. Our discovery seems to suggest that this potential advantage could theoretically extend to males, although we do not know the reason for its extreme rarity.” Clearly, “it is important to ask whether the total disappearance of African tusked elephants is a success for would constitute protection for this species and I personally don’t think so.”
The study was the result of a team effort. The discovery of the specimen is attributed to Kenyan elephant expert and Save the Elephants field operations manager David Daballen, who has tracked the tuskless man and his family from 2011 (shortly after his birth) to the present. “Together with the Save the Elephants research team, which includes Kenyan and international researchers, we were able to document the development of this animal. “For now, our main goal is to work with genetics experts to understand the possible mechanisms underlying the lack of tusks in the elephant we described,” emphasizes D'Ammando, research coordinator of Save the Elephants, in charge of the association is for leading long-term scientific projects, such as studying elephant movements using GPS collars, and for mentoring researchers and students in this field.
Even today, “we don't know for sure whether the lack of tusks is a barrier to female elephants.” Given that many females, including some “matriarchs” we know individually in Kenya, don't seem to have a problem with it, To survive and reproduce without tusks, I would say that the disadvantages for females are minimal.” On the contrary: “Tusks are an important weapon in fights between males for access to females in oestrus and could also be used as a signal of dominance or It is therefore possible that the absence of tusks represents a major disadvantage in the society of male African elephants, which explains the rarity of individuals without tusks (males without tusks would have less chance of surviving and successfully reproducing in adulthood ) », he specifies, recalling that male Asian elephants are regularly born without tusks, and relatively recent studies suggest that the presence or absence of tusks does not pose a problem in the interaction between males. “We will follow our tuskless African specimen throughout its life and perhaps we can give a more complete answer to this question,” he concludes, not without answering a personal curiosity: “I live in Kenya and.” I live in the Samburu National Reserve , in the north of the country… A place that is sometimes “challenging” but of extreme beauty that I wouldn’t trade for anything else in the world” (we’ve already had it here). reported the phenomenon studied on female specimens in the article “Elephants without tusks, so poaching changed DNA.”
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*Save the Elephants was founded in 1993 by British zoologist Iain Douglas-Hamilton and is committed to ensuring a future for African elephants in the wild.