Evolution, elephants, and trauma

[Lilith7]

Im too lazy to read the article. But not so lazy as to not proffer my learned opinion.
All the biggest horns are hunted and killed, removed from the brood herd. This decreases the size of the horns by genetics, its not adaptatiion or evolutionary process.
Furthermore by the end of most seasons the biggest horns have been hunted, with only small ones left to count.

NY Times article is firewalled so unable to view it. I agree with Magoo's take on the situation except evolution will play a part as culling of large horned/tusked individuals will remove their genetic input from the population, in the same way environmentally disadvantaged traits will decrease over time.

It wasn't firewalled for me, no problem reading it.