Palaeontology

Mammoths set to become a protected species

By T.K. Randall
August 21, 2016 ·  6 comments

Mammoths went extinct thousands of years ago. Image Credit: CC BY 2.5 Public Library of Science It is generally well established that hunting down elephants for their ivory is illegal, but did you know that digging up woolly mammoths from the tundra and harvesting their tusks is not ?

There is a surprisingly large quantity of dead mammoths lying under the permafrost - up to 150 million of them according to recent estimates - more than enough to keep the ivory trade going.

No legal restrictions currently exist for the trading of mammoth ivory and for years it has been seen as an ethical alternative to elephant ivory given that mammoths went extinct several millennia ago.All this could soon be set to change however as authorities are planning to assign the woolly mammoth a protected status which would make trading in mammoth ivory illegal.

The move is aimed at providing additional protection to elephants as some poachers have been passing off elephant ivory as mammoth ivory in an effort to cheat the system.

With mammoth ivory outlawed as well it could help to shut down elephant poachers for good.

Source: Telegraph | Comments (6)

Tags: Mammoth, Ivory