In Gorongosa National Park, the oldest elephants are the lone survivors of the Mozambican Civil War, which lasted 15 years and killed about 90% of the large mammal species. Elephants were killed for their tusks, which could be sold as ivory to finance weapons.
This drastic increase in the proportion of tuskless females may have been due to selection favoring individuals without valuable ivory, giving them a greater chance to survive and reproduce. However, this shift could also be a random consequence of the extreme population decline caused by intensive hunting
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Human impacts on singular species can affect entire ecosystems.
Understanding how human conflict has altered the biology of a keystone species offers fundamental insights into the processes that drive evolution and ecology, and may help to inform conservation planning to restore and repair natural ecosystems.
