Poaching

The poaching of elephants for their tusks still occurs, despite worldwide protection under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) but more African elephants are killed than Asian as only some Asian males actually have tusks.  However, Asian elephant tusks are regarded as being of better quality.  With fewer males with tusks remaining, more without tusks are mating with the females, which means that the tusk gene is at risk of disappearing.  Since tusks are an important tool for elephants, this will affect their ability to survive in the wild.