Elephants are evolving to be tuskless after decades of poaching pressure - More than half of female elephants are being born without tusks

Ok I’ve heard this lately, but it goes against what I’ve been taught about natural selection driving evolution. Random mutations produce variation in traits which are either beneficial, allowing the animal to live to reproduce and create similar offspring and a trait is selected for, or un-beneficial, and doesn’t thrive and reproduce and is thus selected against.

So how are tuskless elephants EVOLVING? If we follow the natural selection theory, it means a mutation in tusk production is spreading through the population and more tuskless elephants are being born and surviving and reproducing because they aren’t mowing murdered by asshole hunters. Is this what is happening? In the past, tusks would have been necessary for the fitness of the elephant. But now human poachers are more of a threat to the species than anything tusks would defend against, this tusklessness is the beneficial trait?

Please correct my logic if I’m wrong. I’m a molecular biologist, not a population geneticist!

/r/EverythingScience Thread Link - cbc.ca