The Anthropocene threatens climate & life itself

I don’t remember exactly when or where I read a statement like this:  Future generations may live in a world with no elephants – but it jolted me.  The more I thought about that possibility, the more unhappy I felt, and I turned my animal-world attention to elephants. 

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).

Mammoth tusk

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.  

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.”

https://tinyurl.com/ypexjj33

Multi-purpose tusks

Water Deer

“Elephants have them.  Pigs have them.  Narwhals and water deer have them. Tusks are among the most dramatic examples of mammal dentition . . . ” 

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.

https://tinyurl.com/2zje98st

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.

 Tuskless female

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.”  

https://tinyurl.com/55tch4zk

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. 

Sick Bald Eagle

And make no mistake: Lead poisoning effects are devastating, as one scientist says, affecting all systems of an eagle’s body and slowing population growth.  Besides saving eagles from lead and its perils, poisoned wildlife and tainted meat become non-issues with lead-free ammo.  

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!

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                                        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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