The study published in Science magazine found that in Gorongosa National Park a previously rare genetic condition had became more common as ivory poaching used to finance a civil war pushed the species to the brink of extinction. Before the war, about 18.5% of females were naturally tuskless.
But that figure has risen to 33% among elephants born since the early 1990s.
Some 90% of Mozambique's elephant population was slaughtered by fighters on both sides of the civil war that lasted from 1977 to 1992. Poachers sold the ivory to finance the vicious conflict between government forces and anti-communist insurgents.
As in eye colour and blood type in humans, genes are responsible for whether elephants inherit tusks from their parents.
Elephants without tusks were left alone by hunters, leading to an increased likelihood they would breed and pass on the tuskless trait to their offspring.
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