All the good things said about these
unique and iconic wild animals are true; they have appeared in human history
seemingly forever, and they must not be allowed to disappear now! But now, of course, they’re confronted by the
most menacing foe of all -- the Anthropocene (an unofficial unit of geologic time,
used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity
started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems).
A few recent media articles point to the
long-time existence of elephants and their cousins on this planet, their
relationship to walruses and one physical change that some elephants have undergone
because of widespread poaching and slaughter. 
Mammoth tusk
Elephant tusks are the common element in all three stories: tusks mean ivory, which means money – truly the "root of all evil" where elephants are concerned.
Submerged ancient tusk
About 3 years ago, some 150 miles off
the California coast and around 10,000 feet down, scientists found and retrieved
a tusk from the ocean floor. That find
was followed by research to learn what creature it had come from, and when and
why.
It turned out to have come from a
young female mammoth who had died on land, then her remains were carried out to
deep sea, where that tusk waited for millennia to be discovered. It was spotted by scientists looking for
something else – but they happily took on the “tusk task.”
Multi-purpose tusks
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| Water Deer |
The question is, how did teeth lengthen
into ever-growing tusks in some mammals, including walruses? It didn’t happen overnight, but over long
evolution: certain mammals changed enough for conditions to be right for tusks
to replace their teeth.
The appearance of soft tissue
attachments supporting the teeth and a state when the animal’s teeth aren’t
continuously replaced -- those are the 2 conditions that can lead to the
independent development of tusks.
Tusklessness can protect
Although these ever-growing, projecting
teeth called tusks are used for “fighting, foraging, even flirting,” war and
widespread poaching can cause growth in some elephants to be halted. Mozambique’s 15-year long conflict (1977-1992)
illustrated this.
Occurring
mostly among females, the rising number of tuskless females there accompanied a
dramatic drop in elephant population overall – an evolutionary shift obviously not
curtailed by overall population decline.
Now, however, both population and tusk
growth are seen as necessary to restore Mozambique’s ecosystem because “Elephants
use their tusks as tools to dig for water, strip bark for food, excavate
minerals and salts, carry loads, defend themselves and battle other elephants,
among other uses.” 
Tuskless female
Targeting lead ammo
Saved from DDT years ago, the American
bald eagle then became prey to lead poisoning from the spent ammunition hunters
used to shoot animals that eagles scavenge.
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| Sick Bald Eagle |
While some states and sports already
ban lead ammunition, other individuals and organizations fight to keep it. They argue, inaccurately, that it’s better
than copper bullets, that its after-effects are not as debilitating as claimed
and even that they want to use up their store of lead ammunition.
A video for an anti-lead group details
the many reasons to move away from lead (https://sportingleadfree.org/who-we-are)
and in a related story, a bird-rehabber says, “I’m not opposed to hunting, but we
moved away from lead in gasoline, paint and plumbing and now we need to do the
same with ammunition.”
Beware the Anthropocene!
#
Meet Bucky, a squirrel whose teeth just kept growing.
A woman who took pity on him trimmed his teeth
with manicure scissors, according to The Dodo.
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