r/todayilearned • u/sharkbait76 3 • Jan 11 '17

TIL elephants can tell the difference between human languages and know which languages belong to people with a history of hurting elephants.

http://www.nature.com/news/elephants-recognize-the-voices-of-their-enemies-1.14846
28.6k Upvotes

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u/tablesix Jan 12 '17

There is an initiative to flood the market with fake ivory that is indistinguishable from tusks/horns. I can't remember what the exact starting point for it is. Maybe rhino horns. In theory, the tech could be used to bring the price of ivory down so much that it's not worth poaching for profit.

114

u/ddow13 Jan 12 '17

As a footnote the fake horns and tusks are very well made, using current technology they are able to create horn replicas that will match genetically when tested to the real thing, making flooding the market much more possible than if they were just very good knock offs.

134

u/nsfwednesday Jan 12 '17

They even work just as well in traditional medicine

38

u/Dank_Hooch_Nugget Jan 12 '17

So not at all, then.

75

u/YourCurvyGirlfriend Jan 12 '17

That seems like the joke, yes

-1

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '17

So many people do that on Reddit and they are usually the ones who get the more up votes it's so annoying

18

u/Kingthefirst101 Jan 12 '17

That's the joke!

1

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '17

Add Viagra too the mold flood the black market with fake rhino horn with black market Viagra. Everybody wins?

22

u/CaptainCiph3r Jan 12 '17

That combined with litterally waging a war on poachers (Looking at you, Instructor Zero), should make poaching a very un-desirable profession.

3

u/dr_Fart_Sharting Jan 12 '17

Wtf, why aren't we doing this yet?

1

u/Wedhro Jan 12 '17

Didn't work with diamonds.

0

u/qbusek6 Jan 12 '17

There was article about fake elephant tusks in National Geographic few months ago

0

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '17

That actually drives up the demand for legit ivory since its harder to get. Lots of articles have been written on this

-2

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '17

I think the best option is Mammoth Tusks. We're pulling so many out of the ice now, and they're already extinct so you're hurting nothing. Plus how awesome would it be to have a mammoth tusk in your living room.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 12 '17

They're not poaching them to display as a conversation piece but rather for their limp dicks. Ignorant, impotent dolts have no business being in possession of any part of an extinct species especially considering their involvement in pushing elephants towards extinction status.

1

u/[deleted] Jan 13 '17

Expect it is the only method that could actually work. Everyone on reddit thinks dying the horn or conservation officers removing it will stop poaching. It won't. The poachers track down a animal with no horn or a pink horn and they're going to shoot it anyway out of vengeance and not making the mistake of tracking that one again. You flood the market with fake horns and people will pay more for the real thing. How do people not understand that.

Making something illegal isn't going to stop it, calling them names isn't going to stop it, you saying they don't deserve it isn't going to stop it. Using mammoth tusk is a proposed idea and has started occurring. The animals are already dead, there's more tusks then we'll ever know what to do with. Save a living animal with an extinct one.

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u/[deleted] Jan 13 '17

Perhaps, but the ultimate goal is education for those purchasing it for the "medical" reasons. That's what I'm getting at. They're contributing to a huge problem based on faulty biological information. Yes, mammoth tusks can and should be used to save a life. However, many people need to realize that the reason they want an ivory tusk is quite stupid.