Some elephants are killed for their tusks, but many more starve to death for their molars. Why?

Elephants have very unique teeth, but the "unique teeth" here do not refer to the tusks we are familiar with, but its molars.

Among the more than 5,500 known mammal species, less than 10 species have unique molars like elephants, and these unique molars do not bring many benefits to elephants. Instead, they will eventually die of starvation. In fact, for wild animals, death from old age is almost non-existent. Most wild animals have only three endings: either being eaten by other animals or dying from injuries and infections. If they are lucky enough to avoid these two untimely endings, then nine out of ten will end up starving to death.

Although they all died of starvation, the reasons why most animals died of starvation were completely different from those of elephants. Most of them died of starvation due to old age and physical weakness, and were unable to obtain food, while elephants died of starvation because they had no way to chew food.

So what is so unique about elephant molars? Molars are teeth located at the back of the mouth that are responsible for grinding and chewing food. Most mammals, including humans, have molars that grow in the same way. They slowly sprout upward from the bottom like bamboo shoots, and after adulthood, molars cannot be renewed again, which means that molars in adulthood are used for a lifetime.

The molars of elephants are different from those of other mammals.

First of all, in terms of quantity, most mammals only have three sets of molars, while elephants have six sets of molars, that is, 24. You may think: "Elephants have such a big head, it is normal for them to have more teeth", but the truth is that although elephants have big heads, their upper and lower jaws are relatively short, which means that the space at the back of the mouth is very limited, and it is impossible to accommodate six sets of molars. Therefore, the molars of elephants do not erupt from the bottom to the top like ours, but move forward from the back of the mouth little by little.

Wouldn't the molars at the back gradually push forward and eventually push out the molars at the front?

As we all know, elephants have a huge appetite. An adult elephant can eat more than 100 kilograms of food a day. The molars are responsible for chewing so much food, so they wear out very quickly. When a set of molars is worn out and can no longer be used, the molars at the back just move out, and then squeeze out the molars in front that have been worn out. This completes the replacement of molars, but the process is not very comfortable. Therefore, elephants in the tooth replacement period are usually not in a good mood.

Each set of molars in an elephant is a different size and shape, so each set is used for a different period of time.

When an elephant is about 30 years old, it will have its last set of molars, and the countdown to its life will begin. Once the last set of molars is worn out, there will be no more teeth to replace them, so the elephant will not be able to continue eating, which is very fatal for elephants with large appetites. In the wild, old elephants usually die near water sources because they are so hungry that they cannot eat and can only drink water to fill their stomachs. It can be seen that the key factor that determines the length of an elephant's life is the wear rate of the last set of molars.

In zoos, elephants live much longer than in the wild. Why?

In order to extend the life of elephants, after the last set of molars are replaced, they are fed some easy-to-chew food. As they age, the feed will gradually tend to liquid food, which can greatly reduce the wear rate of the last set of molars, thus extending the life of elephants. In contrast, the life of wild elephants will be greatly shortened if they encounter food shortages, because during food shortages, elephants will chew hard food such as bark, which will inevitably accelerate the wear of molars.