African elephants are evolving to not grow tusks because of poachers

Poaching is having some serious affects.

According to a recent article posted on BusinessInsider, scientists in Mozambique are now racing to get to grips with the genetics of elephants born without tusks, as well as the outcome of the trait. The article states that elephant behavior expert and National Geographic Explorer, Joyce Poole, explained that poaching has a clear influence on elephants — not only in terms of their population size but also in terms of evolution.

It reads: "Hunting has given elephants that didn't grow tusks a biological advantage in Gorongosa, as Poole explained, because poachers focus on elephants with tusks and spare those without.

"By the the early 2000s, 98% of the approximately two hundred female elephants had no tusks. As scientists write, this is clear evidence of the pressure from hunting and how it can now affect a population leading to incredible evolutionary adaptations."

This news comes less than a month after we shared the news that the population of "vertebrate species" has more than halved in the past 40 years. This information came from the Living Planet Report, which is described as a "comprehensive overview of the state of our natural world, twenty years after the flagship report was first published".