487 year old shipwreck ivory studied

[Adrian]

For interest......

Ivory: Elephant decline revealed by shipwreck cargo

A forensic examination of the cargo reveals the devastation of populations caused by the trade.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[flatwater bill]

Very interesting. Thank you for posting....FWB

 

[CoElkHunter]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing.

 

[typilotguy]

Fascinating. Thank you!

 

[Mort Hill]

Thank you @Adrian. Really neat analysis coming out of something so old.

 

[jacques smith]

That’s wild! Thanks for posting

 

[Randy F]

Well that’s pretty darn interesting to say the least!

One question I have, since I’m apparently too lazy to look it up, is what ballsy method was used to take down elephants 500 years ago?

 

[flatwater bill]

That is a great question, Randy. The first thing that crossed my mind as well. Many African tribes had not encountered metal at that time. I suppose many tusks were simply pick-ups. Probably the wheel trap existed. Pit traps. Poison? I will try to follow the researchers, and see if they learn more about where the 17 herds of elephant were located; anything else they learn .............FWB

 

[Nyati]

Well that’s pretty darn interesting to say the least!

One question I have, since I’m apparently too lazy to look it up, is what ballsy method was used to take down elephants 500 years ago?

From what I´ve read the most common way was to stick a poisoned spear in the elephant´s belly and just follow them until they died.

 

[Randy F]

From what I´ve read the most common way was to stick a poisoned spear in the elephant´s belly and just follow them until they died.

I feel sorry for the Guinea Pig picked to eat the first chunk of meat and then sit there while everyone watches to see if he's gonna die. How else to they know if the meat is poisoned too?

 

[tigris115]

iirc, an old technique of hunting elephants was to get a horse that could run fast and turn well and then out-maneuver the elephant while using spears to kill it.

You could also do it on foot but that seems really risky.