A team of wildlife experts discovered the elephant with a pair of strange tusks in a palm field on the island of Borneo in the state of Sabah, Malaysia. Its tusks grow downward instead of upward as usual.
“This is an extremely rare case,” said Sen Nathan, assistant director of the Sabah State Wildlife Authority. “We’re not sure why the elephant’s tusks grew like that. It could be a birth defect or the parents’ inbreeding.”
This could be a birth defect or a parent’s inbreeding.
Mr. Sen Nathan a similar elephant was also discovered in Sabah state in 2015. Authorities plan to move the elephant with the ingrown tusk to a wildlife park until a wild habitat is found. suitable for it.
An elephant has normal growing tusks.
“Its pair of tusks resembles a prehistoric saber-tooth tiger, but of course, they are not related,” said Andrew Sebastian, co-founder of conservation and tourism organization Malaysia. “This could help. Wildlife tourism in Sabah becomes more attractive”.
A study 10 years ago showed that about 2,000 elephants live in Sabah state. Mr. Nathan said the biggest threat to elephants here is not illegal poaching but habitat loss.
