Photo: Harvey Sapir

How can you tell the difference between a mammoth and an elephant ivory?

Mammoth tusks contain a twist and curve whereas elephant tusks are straighter. Mammoth tusks also have a brown outer peel. However, when the ivory is cut into smaller pieces, it can be much harder to distinguish, making it easy to pass off illegal elephant ivory as legal mammoth tusks.

nhm.ac.uk - Why woolly mammoth ivory could spell trouble for elephants

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Melted permafrost reveals more woolly mammoth tusks than ever

Enter mammoth ivory. The sale of this material is legal and has been increasing steadily. Mammoth ivory is generally found during the summer months when the tundra melts. The ground then freezes over again for the rest of the year. But with global warming, more parts of permafrost are now melting to reveal ancient mammoth tusks faster than before. This has caused a 'gold-rush' for mammoth ivory. Siberian locals have hurried to sites where mammoth fossils are usually found, to recover tusks that could change their lives forever - for better or worse. Digging for mammoth ivory is a dangerous task. It requires deep excavation into the hard ground and perilous journeys into mosquito-ridden caves. To retrieve the tusks, a water pump is used. This often disturbs the earth in the vicinity, risking a collapse or flood at any moment. Serious injury and death are not uncommon on such jobs. But if a mammoth tusk is found, it could mean financial freedom for a family. One tusk in good condition could sell for thousands of pounds. Lucy says, 'At the moment, the locals are doing their best to make money because it's really hard to find work in that area. So they're digging into the ground, which is dangerous for them, and not ideal for the fossils which could become damaged in the process.' A licence and increased paperwork are now required to sell mammoth ivory. When exporting to another country, the products are usually checked by authorities which can take months, and the traders lose money. Therefore, Chinese dealers have been buying mammoth tusks directly from Siberian tusk collectors and transporting them back to China without going through the legal process that comes with high tariffs. The tusk collectors in Siberia are sometimes exploited, selling their tusks to these Chinese dealers at a much lower rate while the Chinese traders make the big profits in this recent rush for mammoth ivory. 'It would be better if tusk hunters were incentivised to work with Russian scientists instead,' says Lucy. 'That way, they do not feed the black market and they could retrieve the tusks properly and carefully. 'The fossils could be used for important scientific research. Perhaps they could even find other important carcasses that scientists do not usually have funds to look for, such as the woolly rhinos.'

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Does Japan ban ivory?

env.go.jp - Japan's Regulation on Domestic Ivory Trade and Restrictions on Taking ...

Elephant ivory trade (including whole tusks, cut pieces and ivory products) is restricted by CITES and by Japanese laws. Import/export between Japan and other countries and domestic trade are prohibited in principle. CITES is a convention to protect endangered wild animals and plants from over-exploitation by commercial trade. In Japan, the trade of live animals and plants (including elephants) and products made from them, including ivory, is restricted by the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act for international trade (import/export), and by the Act on Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (ACES), for domestic trade. Penalties exist for those who violate these laws.