Ryan Long , wildlife biologist in United States . Ryan Long is an associate professor in wildlife sciences, along with researchers from Princeton University, began their study on Tuskless elephants in Gorongosa National Park, 2018. Long, a large mammal ecologist, had already been working with elephants in Gorongosa, starting in 2015. The team collected genetic samples and placed trackers on the elephants to monitor their activity. The next couple of years consisted of continually retrieving additional specimen and analyzing their findings. This led to their data, which was published in Science in October 2021. Long not only returned to Gorongosa because of his established presence from prior projects, but because of the area’s high rate of tusk-less elephants. Alarming amounts of elephants in Mozambique were poached during the Mozambican Civil War. The Research from the study found that after the high rates of Ivory Poaching during the Civil War, female elephants without Tusks had a five-time higher chance of survival. Long said after the war, over half of the females in Gorongosa National Park didn’t have Tusks. It became a hereditary trait.
