Ivory

Ivory is a hard, smooth, creamy-white material and a variety of dentin, which elephant tusks are made of.

Other animals, such as walruses, some whales, the hippopotamus, some types of wild boar and warthog, also have teeth made of ivory, but they are of small commercial value because of their size.

From ancient times until modern day, ivory has been considered an article of luxury because of its qualities of close-grained and smooth texture, as well as its luxurious color. It is an excellent material for carving and often used to make ornaments and other articles out of it.

Most of the ivory used commercially comes from Africa, but because of the shrinking number of elephants and the increasing costs of the product, there has been a decline in the commercial sale of ivory throughout the 20^th century. As a result of this, a ban of the ivory trade was made in 1989 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).

Initially, the ban worked and the number of elephants increased again. Common ivory products, such as the white tops of piano keys and white billiard balls, were replaced by products made of plastics or other synthetic materials. However, the ivory trade has continued illegally in a number of producing and consuming countries, and in 2012 alone more than 25,000 elephants were killed in Africa for the use of ivory tusks.

For more information see:

Link 1

Link 2