Tusker

Definition of Tusker

From the elephant glossary Section: genetics

Plai Thongbai and his owner Mr Lun Salangam in Surin, Thailand. Thongbai is famous for his tusks and was many years the very elephant on the posters for Chang Beer in Thailand.

Random Literature
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases

A tusker is an elephant that wear Tusks. All African elephants, of both sexes, are tusksers. In India (before the Poaching during the seventies) about 50% were tuskers, the others are referred to as Makhnas .

In Sri Lanka only 25% wear Tusks. (See Ethas) Today, because of Poaching, tuskers in India are rare, especially in Periyar National park in Thekkady, Kerala, India.

During the eighties and nighties, A criminal band leader, Verappan from the state of Tamil Nadu in India(back in that time known in state of Tamil Nadu as a"Robin Hood"), killed several hundreds of elephants, most of them tuskers, and about 50 game wardens. So in the case of the Asian elephants, the Poaching has not only reduced the population, but also disturbed the balance in the sex ratio of wild populations. Most of the captive beautiful Indian tuskers, owned by the temples around the city of Trichur, or at the temples of Guruvajoor, in Kerala, are rarely or never bred, so their genes will probably not be passed on to next generations.

Reference list Koehl, Dan, (2025). Tusker. Elephant Encyclopedia, available online retrieved 20 September 2021 at https://www.elephant.se/index.php?id=49. (archived at the Wayback machine)

Sources used for this article is among others:

https://www.elephant.se/database2.php?elephant_id=6912

Selected publications

Links about Tusker

Selected external links for this article about Tusker:

External relevant search

Search more on the web for elephant+%22Tusker%22 (Opens in new window and the word elephant+%22Tusker%22 is already submitted into the link, just click on the link for relevant results)

Categories glossary | genetics

About this documentWebsite online since 1995. This document was created: 2004-01-28. Latest update: 2021-10-09 17:16:06 included 1050 characters with valid HTML5