Homework #25: Wooly Mammoth Day 2-3

What is poaching?

• The legal hunting of wild animals

• Keeping wild animals as pets

• The illegal hunting or capture of wild animals

• Farming animals for meat

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Why do poachers often target elephants?

• For their skin

• For their tusks, which can be sold as ivory

• Because they destroy crops

• Because they are easy to catch

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What happened in Mozambique between 1977 and 1992 that affected elephants?

• A drought that destroyed food sources

• A civil war that led to heavy poaching

• A disease that spread among elephants

• A flood that killed many animals

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What effect did the Mozambican Civil War have on the elephant population in Gorongosa?

• Elephant numbers increased due to lack of human activity

• Many elephants were rescued and relocated

• The population decreased sharply due to poaching

• Poaching was banned during the war

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What unusual trend has been observed in Gorongosa’s elephant population?

• Elephants are shrinking in size

• More elephants are born with blue eyes

• A high number of females are tuskless

• Elephants are migrating to urban areas

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Why are so many female elephants in Gorongosa tuskless?

• A virus caused tusks to fall off

• Tusklessness was passed down from tuskless survivors of poaching

• Elephants are removing tusks to avoid poachers

• Scientists genetically modified them

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What does it mean that tusklessness is an inherited trait?

• Elephants choose not to grow tusks

• It is caused by diet

• Tuskless females tend to have tuskless offspring

• Only male elephants inherit it

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What kind of scientific principle explains why tuskless elephants became more common?

• Evolution by natural selection

• Gravity

• Chemical mutation from pollution

• Learned behavior

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How could poaching indirectly affect future elephant populations?

• It could make elephants extinct immediately

• It could lead to tuskless traits becoming more common

• It teaches elephants to hide

• It encourages elephants to grow longer tusks

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How was the human-shaped ear grown on the back of a rat?

• genetic engineering

• With a mold and human cartilage cells

• With laser surgery

• The rat was genetically half-human