A new study says that more male Asian elephants in China may be born without tusks because poaching of the pachyderms (elephants) for their tusks is thinning out the gene pool that creates tusks in the animals. The tuskless gene, which originally existed in Asian elephants at a rate of 2 to 5 percent, has increased to 7 to 12 percent in China among males of the species. Research by Zhang Li, an associate professor of zoology with the college of life sciences at Beijing Normal University, found that the gene for "tusklessness" is spreading among the endangered species in its range of southwest China. "This decrease in the number of elephants born with tusks shows the selective pressure that poaching for ivory is having on the animal," said Zhang. How does a mutation for tusklessness affect the Asian elephant population?
If the trend continues, what my happen to the Asian elephant population?