Planetfurry BBS

[Joshua Fox]

Lions and Tigers and Elephants: Oh my o_o

From the BBC:

Big game 'could roam US plains'

If a group of US researchers have their way, lions, cheetahs, elephants and camels could soon roam parts of North America, Nature magazine reports.
The plan, which is called Pleistocene re-wilding, is intended to be a proactive approach to conservation.

The initiative would help endangered African animals while creating jobs, the Cornell University scientists say.

Evidence also suggests, they claim, that "megafauna" can help maintain ecosystems and boost biodiversity.

"If we only have 10 minutes to present this idea, people think we're nuts," said Harry Greene, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell University, US.

"But if people hear the one-hour version, they realise they haven't thought about this as much as we have. Right now we are investing all our megafauna hopes on one continent - Africa."

Wild America

During the Pleistocene era - between 1.8 million to about 10,000 years ago - North America was home to a myriad of mega fauna.

Once, American cheetah (Acinonyx trumani) prowled the plains hunting pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) - an antelope-like animal found throughout the deserts of the American Southwest - and Camelops, an extinct camelid, browsed on arid land.

But man's arrival on the continent - about 13,000 years ago, according to one prevalent theory - pushed many of these impressive creatures to extinction.

Their disappearance left glaring gaps in the complex web of interactions, upon which a healthy ecosystem depends. The pronghorn, for example, has lost its natural predator and only its startling speed - of up to about 60mph - hints at its now forgotten foe.

By introducing living counterparts to the extinct animals, the researchers say, these voids could be filled. So, by introducing free-ranging African cheetahs to the Southwest, strong interactions with pronghorns could be restored, while providing cheetahs with a new habitat.

Public acceptance

Other living species that could "stand in" for Pleistocene-era animals in North America include feral horses (Equus caballus), wild asses (E. asinus), Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus), Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta africana) elephants and lions (Panthera leo).

"Obviously, gaining public acceptance is going to be a huge issue, especially when you talk about reintroducing predators," said lead author Josh Donlan, of Cornell University. "There are going to have to be some major attitude shifts. That includes realising predation is a natural role, and that people are going to have to take precautions."

However Americans might do more than put up with their new compatriots - they might actually welcome them.

According to Dr Donlan and his colleagues, the re-wilding plan would offer ecotourism and land-management jobs to help the struggling economies of the Great Plains and Southwest.

Dr Donlan said that large tracts of private land are probably the most promising place to start, with each step carefully guided by the fossil record and the involvement of experts and research.

"We are not advocating backing up a van and letting elephants and cheetah out into the landscape," he said. "All of this would be science driven."

[Nite]

o/` Here come the lions...
Only from Kenya...
Thanks to Kenya,
we'll have lions... o/`

[Mapper]

They are having a hard enough time with the natural animals out there. Lion takes on buffalo or Cattle rancher, can aready see that in the paper.

[Mewmew]

Horrid idea. Animals have had a few thousand years to adjust to the way things are now. Bringing big animals over like that would royally screw things up. If they want to help these animals they should find a way to create a giant island to stick them on, because putting them anywhere populated by humans simply will NOT work. Humans are a disgusting species now known for tolerance. The first time a cheetah or lion or something manages to get to a human-populated area and attacks someone, it will be a massive hunt where someone goes and kills random members of whatever speicies it was that caused the problem. That's what already happens. Someone gets hurt/killed by a bear, so people go out and kill the first bear they find and claim it's the one that did the attack.

[Hortmage]

It's a really, really, really bad idea to introduce exotic, non-native species into an ecosystem. There is no way this can come out well. Think gypsy moths, kudzu, starlings, Asian longhorn beetles....

It's hard enough to get ranchers to accept re-introducing wolves to their native habitats...no way you'll get public support to bring in lions and tigers and...well, you know.

[Henry_Hound]

I agree. Introducing Lions and whatever to this continent is a bad idea. It's been howlong since the predacesor's went extinct and the pronghorn hasn't evolved or adapted since then. If they really are a problem then introduce human hunters into the area, after all we are good at adding animals to the extinction list.