What Do Elephants Use Their Tusks For?

Elephants are the largest land animals in the world. Adults can weigh between 6,500 and 12,000 pounds and grow up to 14 feet, taller than two average people. When asked about the most notable features of elephants, many point to their tough skin, long trunks, strong, stocky legs and tusks.

Many wondered what use these sharp-looking daggers were to such a gentle animal as an elephant. Elephants use them for protection, but also for other purposes. Learn what elephants use their tusks for in this article.

What is ivory?

There are currently three species of elephants: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant and the Asian elephant. The obvious difference between these giant species is their tusks. Unlike things like seals and wild boars, ivory is not an extension of the animal’s canines, but rather an extension of its incisors.

Ivory is used in a different way than elephants because they are herbivores and do not tear open their meat to eat or hunt. These large teeth are made up of four parts, including the outer layer of enamel, dentin, cementum, and the pulp, which is the innermost part of the tooth. Ivory from ivory is considered very valuable. However, the trade was banned in 2017 to protect the elephant population.

Ivory never stops growing and is a reliable indicator of an elephant’s age.

Do all elephants have tusks?

All African statues are reported to have tusks. However, only some Asian mammoths have tusks, while some females have shorter tusks called “tusks”. The lips are brittle and usually don’t extend more than an inch or two from the upper lip, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and the Institute of Conservation Biology.

Some researchers believe that increased poaching of elephants for their ivory resulted in many elephants being tuskless and passing on these genes. This change affected the diet of this large mammal, as tuskless elephants ate mostly grass, while tusk-bearing elephants could still eat bark and beans with the help of their large ivory incisors.

However, it is believed that if the females passed the toothless gene on to the male embryos, they could have died prematurely. Increasing numbers of toothless females have been observed in Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, and this will likely only increase over several generations.

What does the elephant do with ivory?

Ivory looks dangerous and is generally considered to be used primarily as a weapon against predators. However, these tusks were used in other aspects of the behemoth’s life. Some other things elephants do with ivory include:

1. Digging

Elephants are large mammals with heavy feet. While their size gives them an advantage when browsing tall trees for leaves and branches, digging underground can be difficult. Elephants with tusks find it easier to dig up groundwater, roots and minerals.

These large mammals use their trunks, feet and tusks to dig into the ground in search of food and water. According to Seaworld Parks & Entertainment, elephants supplement their diet by digging with their tusks and eating soil that contains salt and minerals.

2. Fight other elephantsSecond

An adult male elephant can weigh up to 14,000 pounds, making the elephant quite intimidating and fleshy to predators. A lone hunter like a cheetah would find it difficult to hunt down a calf, let alone a herd of elephants. These large animals protect themselves from predators by charging in packs, and warn of threats with growls, hostile displays, and their tusks.

However, conflicts between elephants can occur. Some believe that male elephants fight to establish dominance or when females are in heat. The males become aggressive and the fighting becomes brutal. They lock the tusks and drive each other, clashing with each other for hours, sometimes to death.

3. Peel the bark

The bark is one of the favorite foods of these large herbivorous mammals, and it contains calcium and roughage that helps the elephants digest it. According to the Elephant Sanctuary, the baobab’s ability to store large amounts of water makes it a favorite of elephants during the dry season or when there is an overpopulation. Large specimens of the baobab can store up to 140,000 liters of water, and the tree’s interior is spongy, like a watermelon.

While elephants have been known to chop down trees and chew the bark off small branches, they need their tusks to peel off larger, tougher trees. Other trees favored by elephants include Spekboom, sugar maple and willow.

4. Lift heavy objects

Adult elephants can reportedly carry over 700 pounds on their muscular trunks. Humans have trained elephants to carry heavy loads over long distances and ride on their backs for years. Given the strength of these large mammals, they were also able to lift objects with their tusks.

To better grip heavy objects such as logs, the elephant supports them on its tusks while pressing them down with its trunk. In this way, the elephant will not lose the weight by slipping and falling. These tusks are strong and do not break easily under the weight of heavy objects.

5. Suspend and protect the suitcase

The trunk is one of the most prominent parts of this large mammal. They are extended noses that can carry heavy objects and are used for tactile communication. An elephant can tell another elephant’s age, identity and reproductive status just by smelling it with its trunk.

However, these trunks have no bones, are sometimes very long, and can be easily injured. To avoid injury to their trunks, elephants can use their strong tusks to protect themselves. They also sometimes hang ivory on the tusk as a sign of intimidation.

Why are tusks shorter than mammoth tusks?

One of the oldest surviving large tusks has been found on an extinct woolly mammoth. Although these furry mammals are thought to be the ancestors of elephants, they are actually cousins, both belonging to the family Elephantidae. These large animals have curved tusks that can grow up to 16 feet long. In contrast, ivory usually does not exceed 11 feet.

Mammoths had longer tusks because they were bigger and heavier than elephants.

Next:

what do elephants eattheir diet explained

What is the largest elephant in the world?

Ivory: What Are They Made Of? What are they for?

Mammoth vs Elephant: What’s the Difference?