When the sixth pair is worn out, starvation is just around the corner. The fifth and sixth teeth are incisors located in the upper jaws. But tusks are hardly useless. Both tools and weapons, they are used for fighting and digging and may also be used when eating. Elephant tusks are tipped with enamel, which is soon worn away.
Asian elephants bear smaller tusks, and female Asian elephants are generally tuskless.
The longest recorded elephant tusk, taken from the eastern Congo, measures 11 feet 5 inches. The heaviest, from Benin, West Africa, weighed 258 pounds when fresh. The longest recorded Asian elephant tusk was 9 feet 10 inches. . Page 3 Page 5 . . . . . . . GEO L INKS . .