A genomic investigation of the diversity lost to the elephant ivory trade

Poaching for ivory is the primary cause of elephant deaths in Africa, where both species of elephant are threatened by extinction. While Europe is not the main market for elephant ivory, it is an important transit node that little is known about. Moreover, the ivory trade has a long history in Europe.

Ivory was considered a valuable commodity shaping the historical trade routes, putting elephants under anthropogenic pressure for millennia. Yet, virtually nothing is known about the historical elephant populations. All the while, 5,000-years’ worth of ivory imports can be found in Europe’s archaeological and museum collections.

In this project, I propose to use elephant ivory, the very thing that has driven the population declines, as a unique way to quantify the loss of genomic diversity through five millennia of elephant ivory trade.

Using a temporal transect of ivory dating from the Neolithic to the present, I will capture the diversity of vanishing elephant populations and I will put it into the context of the diversity that was already lost due to the exploitation in the Phoenician, Roman, Medieval, and colonial times.

Moreover, I will estimate baseline levels of elephant diversity before the onset of the intensified trade in the Bronze Age, which will inform conservation efforts about what is natural elephant diversity.

Analysing confiscated ivory, I will test novel ways of studying the main driver of extinction in elephants, but also in many other species.