BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Big game ‘could roam US plains’ — Isn’t this the same crackpot thinking that gave us Starlings and Kudzu?
Big game ‘could roam US plains’
The animals would fill a void in the ecosystem 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.
Shouldn’t you populate your plains with bison, and keep lions, zebras and cheetahs in Africa? Maybe you could buy some land there, say, the size of Kenya, Angola and Mozambique together, and do this over there? Kick everybody out, and then make a zillion on tourism. I think this is within reach of a very wealthy american? Buy out a few african countries?
Isn’t this the same crackpot thinking that gave us Starlings and Kudzu?
Yep. I just finished Jared Diamond’s Collapse, and so have also been reminded of Australia’s problems after the introduction of non-native species (i.e rabbits, and then the species/viruses introduced to kill the rabbits).
Seems stupid to introduce non-native species which did not evolve in a given ecosystem, or – per the Kansas school board – were not “designed” for it. 🙂
“Place dangerous carnivores on U.S. soil”–cripes, did no one understand Jurassic Park?
Pleasssse…what BS. If you here the word “conservation” while we are under this administration you can be guaranteed that it means some sort of perverted business plan with ecological marketing.
I guarantee you that this is nothing more than a large storage facility for American hunters who are bored of killing deer or too poor to take a trip to Africa. We’ll shelter them here in case the people in Africa kill them all off then we’ll ‘conservatively’ manage their populations here so that the species can be “healthy”. They give the impression that these animals will “roam” the plains when they will likely be fenced into big land pens for paying hunters. See, the problem with America is that we don’t have enough animals to kill that we don’t eat.
This is just utterly idiotic and naive.
This sounds like a natural extension of what Clinton started, bringing back the grey wolf.