Rest In Peace Tim The Tusker
Massive elephants with tusks that graze the ground as they walk across the savannah are one of the iconic animals associated with the continent of Africa, but poaching has decimated the numbers of those who carry the genes to produce massive tusks. The handful who have survived long enough to grow their tusks long enough to meet the ground have been deemed “tuskers”, and are constantly monitored so the passing of a large bull is discovered swiftly. This was the case on Tuesday. One of the last remaining tuskers named Tim passed away in the shadow of Mt Kilimanjaro at the age of 50. Fortunately, his cause of death has been determined to be natural causes and his remains have been sent to a taxidermist to be preserved so that they can be displayed in a museum and continue to tell the tale of the tuskers.
Tim’s passing marks both a crisis in conservation and a victory in the constant war against poaching. He was able to live out the entirety of his life, and hopefully pass on the genes for his impressive tusks to future generations of elephants while avoiding poachers who would have taken his life to harvest the ivory if they had the chance. As sad as it is, any creature like Tim who is able to pass from natural causes is a grim victory in this battle because it means that the poachers did not obtain that prize and the genes will live on in the population. This being said, there is still a conservation crisis as this passing increases the danger of tuskers becoming a distant memory to live on only in the depths of history.
Attached are some sources to learn a little bit about the passing of Tim and the lives that he touched. My heart truly goes out to all of the park rangers that looked over him during his final years walking the Earth.
