| Tikalon Blog is now in archive mode.
An easily printed and saved version of this article, and a link
to a directory of all articles, can be found below: |
|
This article |
| Directory of all articles |
Tusk, Tusk...
July 10, 2013
One memorable song from the late
1970s was
Fleetwood Mac's Tusk. This song was part of a double-
album of the same name, which was priced at about $16.00. In
today's money, that would be $50.00. Nonetheless, four million copies of this album were sold. Yes, that multiplies out to $200 million. The current value of the Nobel Prize, often divided among three people, is a little more than a million dollars.[1]
The sparse lyrics of Tusk don't mention a walrus (aptly done by The Beatles in I Am the Walrus), or an elephant. Some Internet commentators suggest that tusk is a phallic allusion. As Sigmund Freud so famously
did not say,[2] "Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar." I side with the
school of music that believes that lyrics are intended to make sense only in
ballads.
Animal tusks are present on the walrus, elephant,
warthog and
narwhal, among others. They serve as digging and gripping tools, defensive weapons, and a show of
sexual fitness.
Tusk
ivory was found to be a useful
material for
jewelry and
ornaments. Historically, such uses did not consume too much ivory, but all that changed towards the end of the
nineteenth century when
mass quantities of elephant tusk ivory were used for
piano keys and
billiard balls. Modern
plastic composites have replaced ivory in these applications because elephants were becoming an
endangered species and the ivory trade is
highly regulated. However,
illegal trade in ivory is a persistent problem.[3]
The ivory trade in better times.
Men with ivory tusks in Dar es Salaam, sometime between 1880 and 1923
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) prevents ivory trade between member countries, although old ivory articles are exempt.
(Library of Congress photograph, cph.3c02973, via Wikimedia Commons.)
The
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) bans the sale of recent ivory between signatory
nations, but it allows the sale of some old ivory and ivory
artifacts created before the ban. This leaves a
loophole exploited by
poachers who claim that their ivory is old ivory and legal under the convention. Poaching is responsible for about 30,000 elephant deaths per year, and only about 423,000
African elephants are left, so elephants are still threatened with
extinction.[4-6]
An international team of
scientists has just published their research into an age test for ivory in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Team members were from the
University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah), the
University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona), the
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan),
Colorado State University (Fort Collins, Colorado),
Save the Elephants (
Nairobi, Kenya),
Oxford University (Oxford, United Kingdom), and the
Kenya Wildlife Service (Nairobi, Kenya).
Raw ivory from
Asian elephants has been banned since 1975, and ivory from African elephants since 1989. African ivory items are legal in the US only if imported before 1989. The problem, of course, is dating ivory for enforcement.[5] 86,000
pounds of illegal ivory were seized globally in 2011, which is the production of almost 6,000 elephants. A
kilogram of ivory is worth about a thousand dollars.[6]
This elephant in Kenya's Samburu National Reserve is believed to have the largest tusks at that reserve.
(University of Utah photograph by Thure Cerling.)
The
dating method detects
carbon-14 (
14C) deposited in tusks.
Above-ground nuclear weapon testing from 1952-1962 nearly doubled carbon-14 in the
atmosphere, where it worked itself into the
food chain.[4-5] The level declined after 1962, but the
isotope is still present in the
environment.[4] The isotope level in tusks and teeth reveal the year that an animal died.[5]
Accelerator mass spectrometry was used in the published method, since this
analytical technique requires a very small specimen for analysis.[5]
Cesium atoms impact the specimen to dislodge
carbon atoms which are isotopically analyzed.[5]
Calibration was done with specimens from 29 animals from 1905-2008. Pre-1955 ivory is easily identified by its low levels of carbon-14.[5] Interestingly, the ban on ivory trade made it difficult to obtain the most recent specimens. One Utah zoo elephant, and another elephant that died of natural causes in Kenya, provided that material.[6]
Aside from verifying pre-nuclear testing ivory, the method is highly accurate in determining the year of death for animals killed after 1955.[5]
Vegetation is clearing the atmosphere of carbon-14, so the method won't be applicable in fifteen years time when the atmosphere returns to pre-nuclear testing levels.[5]
Says the study's principal author,
geochemist Kevin Uno, who did the research for his
Ph.D. thesis at the University of Utah,
"The dating method [which costs about $500 per specimen] is affordable and accessible to government and law enforcement agencies... It has immediate applications to fighting the illegal sale and trade of ivory that has led to the highest rate of poaching seen in decades."[5]
References:
- Catherine Rampell, "For Nobel Winners, a Smaller Cash Prize," New York Times Blogs, June 11, 2012.
- Sometimes a Cigar Is Just a Cigar Quote Investigator August 12, 2011.
- Iain Douglas-Hamilton, "Time Running out to Save Elephants from Ivory Trade," National Geographic, January 31, 2013.
- Kevin T. Uno, Jay Quade, Daniel C. Fisher, George Wittemyer. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Samuel Andanje, Patrick Omondih, Moses Litoroh and Thure E. Cerling, "Bomb-curve radiocarbon measurement of recent biologic tissues and applications to wildlife forensics and stable isotope (paleo)ecology," Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., Online before Print (July 1, 2013), doi: 10.1073/pnas.1302226110.
- Nuke Test Radiation Can Fight Poachers, University of Utah Press Release, July 1, 2013.
- New Forensic Technique May Help Track Illegal Ivory, Columbia University Press Release, July 1, 2013.
Permanent Link to this article
Linked Keywords: Song; 1970s; Fleetwood Mac; Tusk; album; time value of money; Nobel Prize; lyrics; walrus; The Beatles; I Am the Walrus; elephant; Internet; phallus; phallic; allusion; Sigmund Freud; musical form; school of music; ballad; animal; tusk; warthog; narwhal; secondary sex characteristic; sexual fitness; ivory; material; jewelry; ornament; 19th century; nineteenth century; mass quantities; piano; key; billiard ball; fiber-reinforced plastic; plastic composite; endangered species; CITES; black market; illegal trade; Dar es Salaam; Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species; Library of Congress; Wikimedia Commons; nation; work of art; artifact; loophole; poaching; poachers; Africa; African; extinction; scientist; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; University of Utah (Salt Lake City, Utah); University of Arizona (Tucson, Arizona); University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, Michigan); Colorado State University (Fort Collins, Colorado); Save the Elephants; Nairobi, Kenya; University of Oxford; Oxford University (Oxford, United Kingdom); >Kenya Wildlife Service; Asia; Asian; pound; kilogram; Kenya; Samburu National Reserve; Thure Cerling; radiocarbon dating; carbon-14; nuclear weapons testing; Above-ground nuclear weapon testing; atmosphere of Earth; food chain; isotope; environment; accelerator mass spectrometry; analytical chemistry; cesium; atom; carbon; calibration curve; vegetation; geochemist; Kevin Uno; Ph.D. thesis.