Humans causing evolution

[Guyb93]

Iv read an article today about African elephants that have rapidly evolved because of humans , this is a small clipping from the article “Female elephants in Mozambique rapidly evolved to become tuskless as a result of intense ivory poaching during the country's civil war, even though one of the mutations involved kills male offspring.”

Is this evolution or a form of selective breeding ?
By selective breeding I mean if humans kill all the elephants with tusks leaving only tuskless females then the odds of passing tuskless genetics are higher or are we forcing the animals to mutate and evolve

 

[connorlindeman]

Iv read an article today about African elephants that have rapidly evolved because of humans , this is a small clipping from the article “Female elephants in Mozambique rapidly evolved to become tuskless as a result of intense ivory poaching during the country's civil war, even though one of the mutations involved kills male offspring.”

Is this evolution or a form of selective breeding ?
By selective breeding I mean if humans kill all the elephants with tusks leaving only tuskless females then the odds of passing tuskless genetics are higher or are we forcing the animals to mutate and evolve

It's quite possibly an example of micro evolution.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

Animals adapt to their surroundings and circumstances, whether that be a natural change of surrounding and circumstances or one brought about by changes in human activity and/or human population growth that encroaches upon their usual habitat

Animals tend to be far better at adapting to differences than humans...so I think elephants changing to being tuskless in an area where tusk poaching was predominant is more of an adaption than it would be evolutional change

 

[Guyb93]

Animals adapt to their surroundings and circumstances, whether that be a natural change of surrounding and circumstances or one brought about by changes in human activity and/or human population growth that encroaches upon their usual habitat

Animals tend to be far better at adapting to differences than humans...so I think elephants changing to being tuskless in an area where tusk poaching was predominant is more of an adaption than it would be evolutional change

I get what you mean but with elephants losing tusks I feel there’s a fine line between adapting and evolving . When does an adaptation become an evolvement

 

[Deleted member 149562]

I get what you mean but with elephants losing tusks I feel there’s a fine line between adapting and evolving . When does an adaptation become an evolvement

My line of thought is that elephants are intelligent animals, they see and grieve those from their herd that have died as a result of tusk poaching and have changed to be tuskless...a sort of "If I haven't got tusks, you can't kill me and steal my tusks"

Humans completely underestimate just how intelligent animals can be. There is no such thing as a "dumb" animal....tbh sometimes I think the dumbest living organisms are actually humans, maybe not all humans but a fair proportion of them

 

[Oblio]

Is this evolution or a form of selective breeding ?
By selective breeding I mean if humans kill all the elephants with tusks leaving only tuskless females then the odds of passing tuskless genetics are higher or are we forcing the animals to mutate and evolve

Aren't these really the same at the biological level?. Selective breeding is just humans tweaking the probability curve by selecting traits (intentionally or not) that we wish to enhance or diminish.

 

[GaryE]

Humans are part of the environment, and adaptation and maybe evolution in time are responses to the environment. People who do selective breeding are manipulating a natural process in ways that usually disadvantage the animals but please us. But here, poachers and hunters are selecting the breeding stock with bullets.

A banner tailed guppy wouldn't last in nature, but if it's coddled in tanks, it can be selected to breed true. Years ago when I managed a pond, gold coloured goldfish fry were eaten by herons, while coppery ones often survived and flourished. The herons were a selection pressure, just as hunters are for elephants.

 

[Guyb93]

I don’t know to be fair , it’s hard to classify for me , personally I would say it’s evolution, the animal has changed so it can have a greater chance of living and procreating , same way a cheetah cub displays different marking on its coat . Apparently this has only happened over the last 200 years and they believe they do it to replicate the look of a honey badger because the honey badger is over powered like a Darth Vader of the Wessel world lol
But I can’t actually think of an adaptation that I wouldn’t call evolution

 

[Essjay]

Biston betualria, the peppered moth.

Biston betularia - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics

www.sciencedirect.com

Centuries ago the lighter form of this British moth was dominant as it was better camouflaged on lichen covered trees. Then came the industrial revolution and soot. The darker form became the dominant form on the pollution coated trees. With the clean air act last century, there is less pollution in industrial areas and the lighter form is making a come back.

 

[connorlindeman]

This is change within kinds therefore its horizontal evolution. Its not vertical evolution (sea creature to land animal)
These elephants will never turn into a lion (or similar creature)

same with darwins finches. Its Horizontal Evolution.

 

[connorlindeman]

An elephant population’s average tusk length varying because of poaching requires no absolutely no change in genetic information. It just means that elephants whose genes say “make tusk length 10” are selected against, whereas those whose genes say “make tusk length 0” (No tusks) are selected for.

 

[Oblio]

An elephant population’s average tusk length varying because of poaching requires no absolutely no change in genetic information. It just means that elephants whose genes say “make tusk length 10” are selected against, whereas those whose genes say “make tusk length 0” (No tusks) are selected for.

This is a genetic change.
The offspring (that survive) are going to not have those genes that produce long tusks. It's evolution.

 

[connorlindeman]

This is a genetic change.
The offspring (that survive) are going to not have those genes that produce long tusks. It's evolution.

I dont think so.
Could you define what you mean by evolution? People use that word to mean so many things even within the same sentence.

 

[Oblio]

I dont think so.
Could you define what you mean by evolution? People use that word to mean so many things even within the same sentence.

Generational changes in genetic makeup driven by both the innate sexual genetic variance and environmental forces that either favor or disfavor those variances in reproducing individuals.

 

[TheLavenderBadger]

My line of thought is that elephants are intelligent animals, they see and grieve those from their herd that have died as a result of tusk poaching and have changed to be tuskless...a sort of "If I haven't got tusks, you can't kill me and steal my tusks"

Humans completely underestimate just how intelligent animals can be. There is no such thing as a "dumb" animal....tbh sometimes I think the dumbest living organisms are actually humans, maybe not all humans but a fair proportion of them

I don't know, chickens are pretty dumb.....