The woolly mammoth could soon be give protected status under theConvention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora(CITES ) , which would make any trade in mammoth ivory strictly illegal .
Technically - speaking , the mammoth can not be considered an endangered mintage because it has been dead for around 10,000 years ( with the exception of one peculiarly hardy group that manage to hang on in thereuntil 1650 BCE ) . But many legislators want to add mammoths to the inclination to shut a loophole in current regulations allowing smugglers to masquerade illegal elephant ivory as the sound mammoth kind . ( And sometimes , vice versa . )
While it may be potential to secernate a mammoth ’s tusk from an elephant ’s , the task becomes much harder when the material is turn into bone fallal . In fact , it was only after DNA testing that scientists at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotlandrecently discoveredmammoth DNA hidden within a batch of ivory items picked up in Cambodia . official trust that banning the trafficking of mammoth ivory as well as elephant ivory ( which has been illegalsince 1990 ) will make it easy to weed out those dealing in the latter .
Not everybodythinks this is a good matter . Some say gigantic ivory fills a demand for bone , so banning it outright will put more air pressure on elephants and other hold up source of bone , like walruses and hippos , which are already facing an intense amount of pressure frompoachers , climate variety , andhabitat destruction . And others say that by labor trade underground , legislator may unwillingly draw in the attention of criminal organizations .
It ’s a catchy billet with no bare answer . old attemptsto list mammoths as a protected mintage have failed and for this latest attempt to succeed , it will want the favourable reception of at least two - third gear of parties at the CITES conference , due to take shoes in May .
But if it does get the go - ahead , it will give the woolly mammoth the honest distinction of being the first ever already extinct mintage to make the list .
