Think there may be something to this. This year in Tanzania saw more tuskless cows than I'd ever seen before. My personal theory is: 1) the poachers leave them alone if they can because there is no point in shooting them; and 2) they are onery as hell so poachers leave them alone. Then they pass those genes.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Think there may be something to this. This year in Tanzania saw more tuskless cows than I'd ever seen before. My personal theory is: 1) the poachers leave them alone if they can because there is no point in shooting them; and 2) they are onery as hell so poachers leave them alone. Then they pass those genes.

Did you see many elephants overall?

I've hunted that concession three times. In 2013, when I shot a elephant, but poaching was rampant and we had 50 troops in camp with a combined force of the Tanzanian Army and the Game Department. I had dinner every night with top brass from both. We saw a lot of elephants.

I hunted there again in 2015 and we only saw one group of three elephants.

This year we saw a lot of elephants, but the population has changed. We only saw one lone bull. Saw a lot of cow herds, a few of which were led by tuskless cows. I don't remember seeing tuskless in Tanzania before, but I wasn't looking for them.

It was wet this year and we spent some time stuck. We were charged in the vehicle by a tuskless cow. She was serious, but fortunately, we were not on foot and were in a place we could drive.

But we saw a lot of elephants. Cow herds and mostly young.

Maybe in 20 years or so, but I'll be long gone by then.

C J P Ionides, when he was Ranger in charge of Southern Tanganyika, studied the problem of tuskless eles. He didn't know of course that the gene is semi-lethal in the womb for bull calves. He postulated that one sees so few tuskless bulls compared with cows was that during the dry season after the teenage bull has been cast out of his family he starves to death because he lacks tusks to dig for water and to strip bark off trees. Only bulls huge enough to bully their way back into a female group to steal their water and bark survived.
He also suggested that tuskless of both sexes are so bad tempered was because they have to bully others to survive the dry.
It must be a semi-lethal gene for cows too unless they inhabit an area with reliable feed year round. If a majority of the cows in a group are tuskless they become dependant on one or two tusked cows to feed and water them all. A really bad drought would wipe them out.
In the Addo Elephant Park where the feed is reliable enough to support elephants year round and water is supplied, nearly all the females are tuskless and descended from a small genetic base which survived very heavy ivory hunting and poaching.
Zimbabwe has a sound policy of encouraging tuskless hunting which other nations would be wise to emulate.
I know it wouldn't be a popular idea amongst ARL members but I think a moratorium on shooting mature tusked bulls combined with an unlimited quota of tuskless with no trophy fee would be beneficial to the species in the long run. Yes, I know it wouldn't be good for many peoples business but it might mean your grandchildren could see an 80lb bull!
I wait for the (elephant-sized) shit to land on my head for suggesting such a thing!

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
I've hunted that concession three times. In 2013, when I shot a elephant, but poaching was rampant and we had 50 troops in camp with a combined force of the Tanzanian Army and the Game Department. I had dinner every night with top brass from both. We saw a lot of elephants.

I hunted there again in 2015 and we only saw one group of three elephants.

This year we saw a lot of elephants, but the population has changed. We only saw one lone bull. Saw a lot of cow herds, a few of which were led by tuskless cows. I don't remember seeing tuskless in Tanzania before, but I wasn't looking for them.

It was wet this year and we spent some time stuck. We were charged in the vehicle by a tuskless cow. She was serious, but fortunately, we were not on foot and were in a place we could drive.

But we saw a lot of elephants. Cow herds and mostly young.

Maybe in 20 years or so, but I'll be long gone by then.

Thank you for the update. Kind of hearing the same in the Selous. Who knows maybe 10 years they will start taking a few good bulls again.