I'm writing an article in my magazine "CACCIARE A PALLA" about the possibilities of taking big tuskers today and specially where. Ther'is a question that is not clear for me: what's differences the'are between the tusks of the elephants in east and in southern africa?
It's correct that the southern ivory is stronger ans shorter?

mario,
volumetrically the ivory from the botswana gene pool, southern zimbabwe and eastern namibia is denser i.e. weighs more per volume ...and yes , generally is shorter thicker ivory ..

today the longest ivory (on the whole) comes from tanzania , and thats also genetic ...longer thinner tusks coming from smaller bodied elephants ...

then the zambezi valley ivory is somewhere in between ..

quote:

volumetrically the ivory from the botswana gene pool, southern zimbabwe and eastern namibia is denser i.e. weighs more per volume ...and yes , generally is shorter thicker ivory ..

It that reaaly true? I am somewhat skeptical that you guys drop a tusk in a bucket of water to measure its volume. They indeed look like greater density but I suppose that is because they are heavy but stumpy.

bill , i have done exactly that , like you , i was sceptical , so we rigged a big blue plastic drum (actually the one i use for baiting) and i have , over the years managed to measure this on about 20 different tusks , all from all ages of bulls , what i found was that actually the older bulls seem to have slightly denser ivory , but certainly the hwange/bots ivory is a bit heavier ... interesting stuff ..

actually a good buddy of mkine has a client who wants to shoot 100 elephant , they are measureing the tusk length and thickness and weight of each animal , as well as front and back foot , and also recording the ages ..

it will be interesting what they find , they basically are just hunting zim though ...

nothing that hasnt already been measured i am sure however those records are hard to get ones hands on ...

And aren't the biggest still in N. Kenya? Too bad.

showbart , i think you are right as far as length goes , but as far as weight , i think the kruger genetics still win on that one and there are remnannts of that genetics (the kruger), though now not joined, in northern mozambique

Mario, just out of interest, what is seen as a big tusker? I know 100+ lb is Mecca but realistically when an article is written about chances of getting a big tusker, whats the ball park most folk will think of.

I was told by one of the top Tanzanian outfitters that when he was a youngster and hunting Kenya and Tanzania, he and his father eventually carved two identical cubes of ivory, an inch x an inch x an inch. One cube was taken from a NFD, Kenya bull, and the other from a Selous game reserve bull. He told me that the Selous cube weighed 19% less than that of the Northern kenya bull, giving credence to the density theory.

Having hunted both Zim and Selous elephant in some quantities - the above story rings very true to me.

Sorry for hyjacking this thread, but could any of you give me a weight estimate on the ivory of this Kruger bull I photographed in 2005? Thanks.

Ivan very interesting to know that the southern ivory is denser, a real surprise for me.
Shangaan, you have reason. Today a 100 pouder is a "chimera". I think as big tusker nowadays can be seen an elephant over 60 pound.