Comments on: Where the Wild Things Were

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 16:11:47 +0000

Why not start with Saiga Antelope from Asia, cranial fragments have been found in both the Yukon and North West Territories of Canada. These have been carbon dated to 13,000 to 15,000 B P. They could be re-introduced to these areas and Alaska as well.

By: Stormy

Stormy — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 10:43:50 +0000

I also think that rewilding the Pleistocene Fauna should be a main coal of conservation. Considering the time span during which those animals roamed the rcontinent (for the average genus 5 million yeas), the time span they have now disappeared (13 000 years) is nothing. They clearely belong to North America. The cause of their disappearance is most likely human invasion.

However I do not thing that for instance the Lion can walk completely free. It would cause problems with farmers, people, etc. They lion just is an animal too dangerous to simply coexist with the human of the modern world.
So what we need is a huge, fenced game reserve the megafauna cannot escape from. Still, for populations to be viable they need to migrate. So we should start with fencing the nature reserves and connecting them. Maybe 5-10 % of the land should be given to nature.
Conenctions could be built with natural corriords. Fenced “Animal highways” Lets say 20 meters wide. They could go hundres of miles, across highways and roads on bridges etc. Using the fenced “animal highways” a small fraction of the population could always migrate from reserve A to B and so on. Of course tourists should visit the parks on safaris etc.

Building up such a network of nature reserves it might be sufficient to introduce the megafauna back in one part of the midwest and let the animals choose if they want to populate neighbouring parks. We could just look if the lion will colonize other parts of America or just stay where it was introduced. If it is adapted and feels fine, it will most certainly start to migrate – and even walk into the Wood Buffalo Park of Canada.
Citzens driving on the road could see a lion migrating form A to B on the fenced “animal highway” bridge

By: Suzanne Moore

Suzanne Moore — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 03:29:43 +0000

Excellent post, Neal. Unfortunately, you don’t seem to be well acquainted with the plight of the wild horse in the American West.

It’s not the animal lovers you need to convince – it’s our own government. The Bureau of Land Management, and agency of the Department of the Interior, is the entity that is in charge of our wild horse herds, and all they want it to exterminate them in the wild – presumably to make room for more mining, pipe lines and cattle.

Horses aren’t used for dog food anymore because domestic horses – and many wild ones too – have been exposed to drugs that are banned from the food chain. Many wild horses are getting slaughtered anyway – but for human food, not for dogs. Much more profit in that if you don’t mind selling a toxic product.

The BLM steadfastly rejects the idea that horses are native to the ranges, which is of course, necessary so they can scapegoat the few horses that are left for the damage made by the millions of cattle now on public land. DOI Secretary Salazar says he wants to “industrialize” the west. Horrifying!

What’s even more discouraging is that the environmental agencies reject the horse’s native status. The Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, The Wilderness Society, the Audubon Society – all of them – won’t even consider the idea and side with the BLM in removing the horses.

I find it incredible that our government can break any law it chooses to remove all the horses from lands they are supposed to be protected on, but even worse is the deliberate blindness of environmentalists.

We probably will never sell the idea of large predators in America, but we could have had the horses if it weren’t for all the corruption, greed and prejudice.

By: Robert Oakes

Robert Oakes — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:45:53 +0000

The pleistocene rewilding of north america is a great idea but has a tough competitor. That competitor is not the science behind the proposal, but lies within people who live in this country.
The average citizen talks of saving the planet, or about what should be done about global warming, but do nothing about it in their daily lives. There is an idea that their is a seperation between the natural world and our world. The natural world is the parks that we visit, or what they see on the discovery channel. The average american likes to choose what belongs in their little slice of america. They seperate the natural world into what They like, don’t like , and thoses things that They fear. I had a person tell me this past week that all the snakes in this world should be killed, they dont serve a purpose. All because that person thinks they are ugly, posionus, and can’t stand their tounges. So why not just get rid of them. This is the narrow view most people have.
The reality is the natural world does not start at the edge of their fence or the town in which they live, your always in the natural world.
For the pleistocene rewilding of north america to work people’s preception’s have to change.

By: Arthur Siew

Arthur Siew — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:54:31 +0000

I support the pleistocene rewilding of north america, it would be great to see the relative of mammoth and lions roam the great plain of america. But people are always afraid of new ideas. And most Farmer and Rancher, would not like the idea of their livestock taken by lions, tiger and cheetah and their cornfield destroyed by a herd of elephant which is seen in africa and india, so rewilding project should take careful step and should be carefully controlled so that human and megafauna do not cross each other path.

By: Neal C Ballard

Neal C Ballard — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:59:52 +0000

All good ideas encounter resistance. If the ideas have merit, they overcome. Rewilding is an idea whose time & economic justification has come. American farmers & ranchers are struggling with their economic model in many parts of the country, & I’m sure they would ultimately be won over to the tourism economy that reintroduciton of the megafauna will bring. Megafauna farms already are common in Texas today.

A dialogue that is palatable to horse and animal lovers needs to be developed regarding the reintroduction of lions. Right now, wild horses are rounded up and slaughtered for dog food when their numbers increase; it should be easy to present the benefits of having their wild populations controlled in fenced game parks by lions as an alternative. Even ardent animal lovers will be convinced that the taking of sick and old horses by lions is preferable to sending overpopulating healthy horses to a dog food factory. Other good examples can be found & made popular.

Cheetahs should be an easy sell. Cheetahs are relatively small & not tuned into hunting humans, so cheetah reintroduction into game parks or even national parklands that contain gazelle should be easy to sell also.

Thank you for this excellent article! I’m looking forward to being part of the ‘citizen conservation’ movement in the future!!

By: Morgan MacGregor

Morgan MacGregor — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 08:07:40 +0000

I think that “Pleistocene Re-Wilding”is vital for the progression of thought in many fields of study. The scientific world and renaissance of education must forge through the political, economical, and above all circumstance, of these times that we call the present. The questions that will be answered as well as sparked will ultimately lead to revelations in how we view ecological and paleontological theories. It should be done by the philanthropists who have the vision and foresight for the human race.
Just a thought.

- M