Elephants are recognized by their distinctive tusks, elongated structures that are both functional and have long fascinated humans. This fascination has unfortunately led to their exploitation. Understanding their biology, purpose, and growth is important for appreciating these magnificent animals and the efforts to protect them.
Biological Makeup
Elephant tusks are not horns, but elongated incisor teeth. These teeth are primarily composed of dentin, a hard, dense, bony tissue known as ivory. A thin layer of enamel, the hardest animal tissue, covers the tusk tip in young elephants, though this quickly wears away with use.
About one-third of the tusk is hidden inside the elephant’s skull, anchored by a bony socket. This embedded part contains a pulp cavity filled with nerves, blood vessels, and living tissue. This connection means removing a tusk is a painful and potentially fatal procedure, as it is a living part of their anatomy.
How Elephants Use Their Tusks
Elephants use their tusks for many activities. They serve as versatile tools for foraging, digging for water, minerals, or roots during dry seasons. Tusks also help elephants strip bark from trees to access nutritious inner layers and can be used to lift and move objects.
Tusks play a role in defense against predators and in aggressive interactions. They are also important for social displays, helping establish dominance hierarchies and assert status within the herd. Tusks also protect the elephant’s sensitive trunk, a crucial appendage.
Tusk Growth and Variation
Elephant tusks grow continuously throughout an elephant’s life, with permanent tusks emerging around two years of age after the milk tusks fall out. The growth rate averages about 15-18 centimeters (6-7 inches) per year, influenced by genetics, diet, and age. Older elephants have larger tusks due to this continuous growth.
Elephants often show a preference for one tusk, similar to human handedness, leading to one “master” tusk that may be shorter and more worn. While most African elephants of both sexes have tusks, some are naturally tuskless due to genetic traits. The increasing incidence of tusklessness, particularly in female African elephants, has been linked to intense poaching pressure, as tuskless individuals were historically less targeted and thus more likely to survive and pass on their genes.
Conservation and Illegal Trade
Elephant tusks, valued as “ivory,” have been sought after by humans for millennia due to their beauty, durability, and ease of carving. Historically, ivory was crafted into ornamental objects, jewelry, and luxury items, symbolizing wealth and status across many cultures. This demand has fueled a devastating illegal trade, posing the most significant threat to elephant populations today.
Poachers kill tens of thousands of elephants each year to harvest their tusks, driving a rapid decline in numbers. The international demand for ivory, particularly from certain Asian markets, has been a major factor in this crisis. Global efforts to combat this trade include legal protections for elephants and the prohibition of commercial ivory trade under international agreements like the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES banned the international commercial trade in African elephant ivory in 1989, which initially helped stabilize populations, but illegal trade persists, often facilitated by organized crime and corruption.