Why are the teeth of elephants in Africa getting shorter and shorter now?

Friends who like to pay attention to elephants may know that the tooth size of African elephants seems to be greatly reduced compared with the past. No matter what you see in the news or reports, elephants' teeth are getting shorter and shorter. In fact, in Africa, the phenomenon of short teeth of elephants is becoming more and more common, and many people begin to wonder, what is the reason behind this?

You know, under normal circumstances, most African elephants, whether male or female, have very long teeth, and only a few African elephants have teeth with different lengths or no teeth because of genetic variation and other reasons. Because of relatively short teeth, although living in nature may not be a problem. But once in danger, such as being invaded by other wild animals, ivory can play a very important role.

It is conceivable that the teeth of African elephants are getting shorter and shorter, and the reasons behind this are mostly poachers. The behavior of poachers has become an elephant's helper through natural selection. You know, for poachers, the longer the ivory, the higher the value, and the longer the natural ivory, the easier it is for adult elephants to be targeted. Poaching will not only reduce the number of elephants with tusks, but also reduce the size of ivory. According to the survey, in southern Kenya, the ivory recorded from 2005 to 20 13 was much less than that recorded from 1966 to 1968. Among the elephants that survived the heavy encirclement of poachers, the ivory of the male elephant decreased by one fifth on average, and that of the female elephant decreased by one third. In short, the longer the ivory, the lower the chances of survival and reproduction. In the long run, the teeth of African elephants may become shorter and shorter, or even develop into toothless.

There is no doubt that poaching is very undesirable. The ivory of African elephants is getting shorter and shorter, which is a choice they are forced to make in order to survive and reproduce. As we all know, the biological groups on the earth have evolved and developed for billions of years, and now they have basically formed a stable ecological model. The emergence of human species is only in the last few million years. For the future development, we should not break this existing balance unscrupulously just to satisfy our greed and vanity.