Elephant tusks are made of bone, they are actually its second upper incisors , teeth. Tusks grow continuously; an adult Male's tusks grow about 18 cm (7 in) a year. Elephants use their Tusks to dig for water, salt, and roots, to debark trees, and eat the, to dig into baobab trees to get at the pulp inside, and to move trees and branches when clearing a path. In addition, they use them for marking trees to establish territory and occasionally as weapons. Like humans who are typically right- or left-handed, elephants are usually right- or left-tusked. The dominant tusk, called the master tusk, is generally shorter and more rounded at the tip from wear. Tusks are highly sought after by poachers, who will often kill the elephant for its tusks, also called Ivory. There are not gems in the tusks unless they are placed there by a human as decoration, as is often done in places such as India, where the elephant is revered.
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