Elephants often use their tusks to strip the bark from trees. How might this action harm the environment?

Question

how does this harm the environment?

thankyou :]

Answer 1

Funny, someone just asked this same question in the zoology section...

The elephants kill the trees thereby destroying the habitats of other animals etc, etc.

Read this:

http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom...

Answer 2

As compared to us, the bark of trees is like our skin. It it the tree's first line of defense in their "immune system". If there is a whole, fungi and insects can enter into the wound and eventually destroy the tree by the disruption of the xylem and phloem. That is just for the tree itself. Lack of trees can mean loss of habitat and food or other species in the niche.

Answer 3

Elephants also push trees down to eat the leaves. Either way, both activities kill the trees, then their roots break apart and stop holding the soil together.  Later, when it rains the ground gets all soggy and muddy and it messes up the ecosystem where it happened. It causes erosion.

Answer 4

it harms the trees that give us oxygen

Answer 5

Trees are an important part of the ecosystem. Anything that damages them creates an imbalance. Less tress, less oxygen, more carbon dioxide.