Illegal tusk harvest and the decline of tusk size in the African elephant.

ABSTRACT: Harvesting of wild populations can cause the evolution of morphological, behavioral, and life history traits that may compromise natural or sexual selection. Despite the vulnerability of large mammals to rapid population decline from harvesting, the evolutionary effects of harvesting on mega-fauna have received limited attention. In elephants, illegal ivory harvesting disproportionately affects older age classes and males because they carry large tusks, but its' effects on tusk size for age or tusk size for stature are less understood. We tested whether severe historical elephant harvests eliminated large tuskers among survivors and whether elephants born thereafter had smaller tusks. Adjusting for the influence of shoulder height - a metric strongly correlated with body size and age and o

SUBMITTER: Chiyo PI 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6102531 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature