I was paging through Taylor's "African Rifles and Cartridges" for the thousandth time and I again saw the photo he has in there of Fletcher Jamison. The caption of the photo talks about the type of shelter needed while on safari, but in the photo, Fletcher is seated next to a large pile of ivory - probably all in the 85+ lbs category.

In looking at the tusks on the ground, I noticed that all of them appears to be VERY straight, with very little curve. The all looked like this "(".

In seeing more recent photos of elephant tusks taken by hunters, I noticed many of them with larger arcs than the ones in the photograph with Jamison. These look more like this "C".

Is there a reason why this is? As an elepant gets larger tusks, do they loose their deep curves and "straighten out"?

Just curious...

I'm no expert on elephant by any means but I have been told by PH's that elephant tusks are just like any other animal with a wide range. From region to region there will be differences in the tusks. Some regions produce thinner, longer tusks while others produce shorter, larger diameter tusks.

So, it would not be a big stretch for me to believe that in some regions the bulls would produce straighter tusks than what we normally think of when it comes to tusk shape.

Did any of that make any sense? LOL

I follow, so if any one else also follows, maybe we all need a trip to NYC's Bellview Psyc Ward