Ivory deformation- any guesses

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22 September 2006, 03:30

jcbarth

Ivory deformation- any guesses

They pulled my tusks and PH was quite surprised to find this-

Anyone seen anything like this before? Possible causes. Everyone is quite perplexed as the other tusk had 1/3rd of the expected nerve, but this one really freaked everyone out.

Another angle-

Regards,
John Barth

22 September 2006, 03:44

Aspen Hill Adventures

Infection/abcess?

22 September 2006, 04:08

Wendell Reich

That would be my guess as well. Injury of some sort, whether it was infection or trauma, possibly as a calf?

What is surprising is that the tusk still grew out normal.

Very interesting.

22 September 2006, 04:48

btglfer

When I was in Peter Chipman's camp in Zambia a year ago, there was a pair of tusks with similar formations, to the extent that the one tusk came out in two pieces.

I don't know if it was confirmed or assumed, but we understood it to be a poachers bullet that caused the damage.

I'd think a bullet would be pretty obvious, but the trauma, a bullet or otherwise, could've happened decades earlier.

22 September 2006, 07:46

Will

Damn, what a mess. Hope he wasn't in pain.

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22 September 2006, 07:55

jeffeosso

He didn't see the dentist!

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22 September 2006, 08:12

bwanamrm

Interesting John and nice ivory, by the way. I encountered something very similar with my tusks from an elephant I took in the Zambezi Valley in 2004. My deformation was attributed to an old musket ball wound at the base of the ivory. The affected tusk was smaller but was very solid due to the damage to the nerve. Yours seemed exactly opposite! Don't know if the same could be attributed to your bull since the length of your ivory seems unaffected as Wendell pointed out. I am sure that old boy had a story to tell! Congrats again on your elephant!

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27 September 2006, 02:46

bwana dogo

The deformation is consistent with a chronic root abscess typically caused by a foreign body or injury that damaged the alveolus and tusk.The bone loss ,or resorption, is due to necrosis of the soft tissues and resulting pus.Although I am a veterinarian, I have only been associated with the extraction of one set of tusks-mine with Myles McCallum in Chewore this past April!Congratulations!