How much does a male elephant tusk weigh?

Nowadays, an elephant’s tusk doesn’t weigh more than 100 pounds or so. In the past, it wasn’t uncommon to see some tusks that weighed over 200 pounds. Due to animal poaching, lack of resources in the wild, and abuse in captivity, elephant tusks have become much lighter in recent years. Only males have tusks in the Asian elephant species, but the other two recognized species have both male and females with tusks.

A female tusk is usually very small, or they don’t have a tusk at all, depending on the individual factors of the area. Tusks are often taken for elephant ivory. This is an illegal activity, and the loss of weight in the tusk may be attributed, in part, to a survival tactic to keep their tusks from being hunted.