Elephants evolving in China

[Glockmatic]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050717/sc_afp/chinaanimalselephant_050717075953

BEIJING, July 17 (AFP) - A recent study has predicted that more male Asian elephants in China will be born without tusks because poaching of tusked elephants is reducing the gene pool, the China Daily reported Sunday.

The study, conducted in the Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in southwest China's Yunnan province, where two-thirds of China's Asian elephants live, found that the tuskless phenomenon is spreading, the report said.

The tusk-free gene, which is found in between two and five percent of male Asian elephants, has increased to between five percent and 10 percent in elephants in China, according to Zhang Li, an associate professor of zoology at Beijing Normal University.

"This decrease in the number of elephants born with tusks shows the poaching pressure for ivory on the animal," said Zhang, whose research team has been studying elephants since 1999 at a reserve in Xishuangbanna.

Only male elephants have tusks, which are said to be a symbol of masculinity and a weapon to fight for territory. However, due to poaching for ivory, the elephants' pride has become a death sentence, the report said.

"The larger tusks the male elephant has, the more likely it will be shot by poachers," said Zhang. "Therefore, the ones without tusks survive, preserving the tuskless gene in the species."

A similar decline in elephants with tusks has been seen in Uganda, which experienced heavy poaching in the 1970s and '80s, the report said.

However, Zhang's findings of the spread of the tuskless gene due to poaching must be tested, according to some academics.

"This is, of course, a possibility, but till now there is no clear genetic proof that it can occur," Vivek Menon, executive director of the Wildlife Trust of India, was quoted as saying.

Rampant poaching of male elephants for tusks has also caused the female-to-male ratio to rise from the ideal 2:1 to 4:1 in China and 100:1 in India, the report said.

There are between 45,000 and 50,000 Asian elephants in 13 countries, including China and India. China only has about 250, according to the report.

China is among 160 nations which signed an international treaty administered since 1989 banning the trade in ivory and products of other endangered animals.

Nonetheless, four Asian elephants were found shot dead in China last year.

In addition to poaching, human activity that causes a loss of habitat also threatens the animals.

Interesting seeing evolution happening infront of us

 

[PuffnScruff]

thats pretty crazy. when word of this gets out, the price of ivory will triple!

 

[TecK NeeX]

Interesting seeing evolution happening infront of us

God i hope you're being sarcastic with this, Tusk or no tusk the damn animal is still an Elephant. The Theory of Evolution does not need human intervention for it to occur.

 

[ARon]

Wow, if anything this is just sad.

 

[Hankaveli]

God i hope you're being sarcastic with this, Tusk or no tusk the damn animal is still an Elephant. The Theory of Evolution does not need human intervention for it to occur.

WTF? Evolution happens when something needs to adapt, Humans just happen to be the catalyst.

if Tigers hunted for Tusks this would have happend already.

 

[Outla Spirit]

thats pretty crazy. when word of this gets out, the price of ivory will triple!

so so true

 

[TecK NeeX]

if Tigers hunted for Tusks this would have happend already.

WTF? bwhahah Animals dont hunt for Tusks but they do hunt for flesh i dont see animals adapting to that. Or is their flesh according to the Theory of Evolution an exception but Tusks are not? by this reasoning all animals that are being hunted down for their fur will in the near future adapt to that and evolve into hairless creatures only to end up dying from the harsh winters. Tough choice for Natural Selection

WoW the length some people go to defend this rediculous theory!

 

[Hankaveli]

WTF? bwhahah Animals dont hunt for Tusks but they do hunt for flesh i dont see animals adapting to that. Or is their flesh according to the Theory of Evolution an exception but Tusks are not? by this reasoning all animals that are being hunted down for their fur will in the near future adapt to that and evolve into hairless creatures only to end up dying from the harsh winters. Tough choice for Natural Selection

WoW the length some people go to defend this rediculous theory!

you are lost in the whirlwind

 

[TecK NeeX]

you are lost in the whirlwind

You are the missing link between Man and Animal

 

[not really ken]

You are the missing link between Man and Animal

lol

 

[Glockmatic]

God i hope you're being sarcastic with this, Tusk or no tusk the damn animal is still an Elephant. The Theory of Evolution does not need human intervention for it to occur.

its still evolution. They are changing themselves to adapt to the situation they are in. Yes evolution doesn't need human intervention to occur, but it is happening because of human intervention

 

[Jokerman]

by this reasoning all animals that are being hunted down for their fur will in the near future adapt to that and evolve into hairless creatures !

Your analogy is so unsimilar to what's happening with the elephants that it's borders on the irrational.

Reasoning 101:

Animals with fur don't have a whole segment of their species that don't have fur, and so, don't get hunted and live to pass their furless genes on. Elephants do have whole segments that don't have tusks or big ones, and so, don't get hunted and live to pass their genes on.

You're so confused about what evolution shows that you lumped all animals with fur together, and then made a sweeping adaptive generalization about how they should adapt if natural selection was valid. Bwhahaha!

The lengths some people go to defend their religious beliefs.

 

[Valeoz]

This is not evolution but simply the absence of a chromosome.

"The larger tusks the male elephant has, the more likely it will be shot by poachers," said Zhang. "Therefore, the ones without tusks survive, preserving the tuskless gene in the species."

As you see from this quote the chromosome that creates the elephant's tusks is being killed by poachers and the chromosome that carries tuskless has no choice but to survive and multiply as one chromosome in the gene pool is being eliminated. There is no survival of the fittest or adaption in this so called elephant epidemic.

 

[Glockmatic]

This is not evolution but simply the absence of a chromosome.



As you see from this quote the chromosome that creates the elephant's tusks is being killed by poachers and the chromosome that carries tuskless has no choice but to survive and multiply as one chromosome in the gene pool is being eliminated. There is no survival of the fittest or adaption in this so called elephant epidemic.

Human intervention is dictating how the elephant is evolving. This could happen in nature, maybe a disease that kills elephants with tusks, naturally phasing out the chromosome that carries the large tusk gene. In this case its not a disease but a bullet that does the selection of fittest.

 

[MrsMakaveli4eva]

looks like we screwed up and God took away their tusks

 

[TecK NeeX]

Animals with fur don't have a whole segment of their species that don't have fur, and so, don't get hunted and live to pass their furless genes on. Elephants do have whole segments that don't have tusks or big ones, and so, don't get hunted and live to pass their genes on..

You've just dispproved the whole Theory of Evolution in one single paragraph.

Evolutionists claim that Birds evolved from many different dinosaur species that had enormous structural differences between the two classes of animals and those that didn't have a whole 'segment' of their own species with 'wings' 'feathers' and the complex organs birds possess that are unique and different than all other creatures.

Evolutionists came up with an absurd and laughable explanation for this. They debate that although due to the many Dinosaur species that didn't have a segment of their own species with wings, they lived in the branches of trees then evolved into birds by trying to "jump from one branch to another" or "While trying to catch flies.". But that was before they discovered that creatures with wings existed long before dinosaurs did

Thats not mentioning the millions of other species that had no segment or similar structures to the species they Evolved into

 

[Valeoz]

Human intervention is dictating how the elephant is evolving. This could happen in nature naturally, maybe a disease that kills elephants with tusks, naturally phasing out the chromosome that carries the large tusk gene. In this case its not a disease but a bullet that does the selection of fittest.

Thats the thing. I don't see how the elephant is evolving for the fact that the tuskless chromosome already exists but naturally multiplying exponentially for the tusk chromosome is being eliminated. I see that it cannot be a selection of the fittest for there is no "strongest" gene or anything of that criteria. The tuskless gene is surviving because it is not wanted, it has no demands, therefore it has no choice but to multiply exponentially.

 

[Glockmatic]

Female elephants go for the bull elephants with the largest tusks, it shows that it has the stronger genes. The fittest are taken out, now the tuskless males are the fittest and their genes will live on leaving future elephants tuskless.

 

[Swollen_Member]

^^Exactly. Whomever in a species lives to pass on their seeds to the next generation is the fittest of that species. All the males with tusks are being killed before they can pass on their genes, which is why more and more elephants are being born without tusks. This is Darwinism at at work.

 

[Hankaveli]

^^Exactly. Whomever in a species lives to pass on their seeds to the next generation is the fittest of that species. All the males with tusks are being killed before they can pass on their genes, which is why more and more elephants are being born without tusks. This is Darwinism at at work.

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