If public opinion wasn't a factor, what are some ambitious rewilding ideas you'd advocate for?
DiscussionAlso reintroducing grizzlies to all of their former range.
Edit: Caribou back into Maine as well
I love these ideas
Cool, but doesn't seem very ambitious. I think even the most conservative rewilders advocate for all this.
By the way, grey wolves aren't the native wolf species of the Adirondacks, eastern wolves (Canis lycaon) are.
I’d argue it’s ambitious given the costs and politics, but if we’re going bigger: create a gigantic reserve in eastern China with elephants, rhinos, and tigers
There are already quite a few reserves there though it’s mostly smaller wildlife
It’s been a few years since I was up on Canis genetics but I’m under the impression that C. lycaon isn’t a real taxa but a garbage bin of grey wolves mingled with red wolves and coyotes, possibly due to low population numbers
What is bad about the pine plantations? They're ALL over my area and see 'em all the time.
If I was a billionaire I'd set up a mega-project to resurrect every single species that was killed off by humans. You know, stuff like the woolly mammoth, Thylacine, giant moa, the Australian megafauna, etc. I know I might not be technically possible in every single case but with how fast technology is moving, I wouldn't be surprised if we could bring back a decent amount of species by the end of the century.
Same, A Pleistocene Park in North America would be dream of mine to see, especially if we can bring back extinct megafauna for it. Somewhere like The American Prairie Reserve would be a perfect location for one. I'd give anything to see Mammoths return in large herds to The Great Plains & The Far North like this scene from "Ice Age 2" .
This is what I hope for too. We only started messing with DNA in the 80s, so it’s still fairly recent all things considered.
Leopards in Europe. It’s crazy the whole continent has no true big cats, and leopards used to be found there. I don’t think lions could really ever thrive in Europe
Interestingly, albeit virtually impossible, bringing back leopards to the Iberian Peninsula could have a positive impact on the overpopulation of goats in the mountains. During the Late Pleistocene, Panthera pardus spelaea inhabited most of the northern regions of Spain, which in fact became one of its latest refuges before going extinct. I recall having read that there's proof that these leopards fed on ibex, which should be their main prey item, so it is highly likely that a stable number of leopards would make the overpopulated herbivores go down a bit.
Would be good to try getting the ibex back up too
Def depends on when they went extinct tho
Technically we already have leopards in Russia (not in the European part but still), and leopards are by far the most adaptable of the big cats. It could work out
I’m dreaming of Greece, Italy, and France
Leopards were historically present in Greece too
Leopards had a very limited Holocene range in Europe from what I know (I’m pretty sure they only existed in Europe at all because the straight separating the Black Sea had not fully formed by then
Lions in Europe
The balkans would work but work would have to go on in making grasslands
Return Komodo dragons to Kakadu to provide some land-based predation for the introduced water buffalo. Return dingos, devils and quolls to the south-east to depose cats from their role as a dominant vertebrate carnivore in that part of the country.
But seriously though, have you seen how big those feral cats in Australia get? We need an all-out legion of Komodo’s, Dingoes, Quolls, Tasmanian Devils, even the Australian army in the Outback ASAP
Army retreated, overrun by emus
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I would love if you wrote along form post expanding on this and any other ideas you have - this has really captured my imagination
Lions in the middle east and north africa.
Jaguars in North America
North Africa and middle east megafauna return
-Widespread reintroduction of Wild Water buffalo in Gange plains, central india, southeast asia (I see you Borneo, I see you)
-Classical europe one people will say.
Oh and world wide mangrove forest restauration
I'd like to see spotted hyenas return to their former ranges in Europe and Asia
The first things that came to mind were land-based things - jaguars in the US, re-establishing large bison herds on the Great plains, woodland caribou in northern MN, WI, MI. However, there's a lot of potential for aquatic restoration and rewinding, even in an urban context. Imagine seeing river otters and wood ducks in the Chicago river and on the shores of Lake Michigan right in downtown Chicago. Imagine orcas, belugas, dolphins, seals etc. in the New York harbor. What if dolphins in the canals of Venice weren't just an early Covid phenomenon?
On a side note, did you know that jaguars were once found as far north as the Platte River valley in Colorado? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_jaguar
Up to Pennsylvania and Washington actually. Colorado was just the jaguar's northernmost range in the 1800s.
Passanger pidgeon. Ivory woodpecker. Cave lion. American cheetah. Ground sloth. American camel. Cave hyena. American equis. Alaskan manatee. Dire wolves. Glyptodon. Mammoth obvs.
Reintroducing tiger & elephant into java island.tiger & elephant used to live in java during pleistocene & early holocene.
200 million people on an island small than most US states - probably most ambitious answer in this thread
As did sun bear, with orangs, sunda clouded leopards and siamangs being lost earlier in the Pleistocene. Whole bunch of more recent extirpations too; white-winged duck, wild water buffalo, Bawean deer, Siamese crocodile, Tomistoma...
If land-use conflict can be effectively managed, and (here's the issue) suitably sized areas of connected habitat can be restored, there's a lot of restoration potential on Indonesia's busiest island.
Ban grouse shooting, repossess all grouse moors to become public land, reintroduce/encourage population growth of lynx, beavers, polecats, wild cats, wild horses and cattle.
I’d love to see the return of Barbary macaques and leopards to Europe also the return of lions and tigers to the north Caucasus.
For Europe: - Not only predators but first of all, all the mega-herbivores on big scale: what a great experience that must be: millions of Taurus, horses, European bisons, elephants, deers and all the others migrating the great steppes from Iberia to Ukraine! - next then the predators following these great herbivores! - reintroducing wetlands on big scale: maybe including also hippos in Rhine and Danube.
That would be real rewilding/ restoration on big scale!
Giant ground sloth, anywhere
Jaguars in the United States in their historic pre-European arrival range. I think they could take care of quite a few pythons in Florida.
Wolves and cougars back in the northeastern United States and eastern Canada.
Shitty corn fields restored back to prairie, as well as the return of their megafauna.
Jaguars in the United States wherever feral pigs are present. Pigs are the perfect prey for them, and are hunted in large numbers in the Pantanal. Definitely easier prey than white-tailed deer.
Tasmanian devils and Komodo dragons back to every corner of Australia that can support them. Invasive placental mammals wouldn't stand a chance if those two returned.
Dholes back in more of their prehistoric range, especially Europe. This species ranged from Iberia to Siberia during the Pleistocene. The forests of modern Europe would be perfect habitat for them.
Saiga anywhere they can be put. This used to be one of the most widespread and abundant land mammals on Earth during the Pleistocene due to the mammoth steppe environment. It needs to return to more of central Asia, as well as grasslands in eastern Europe.
Cheetah to the central Asian steppe. Cheetahs used to be present there, and I'm sure they resembled the current Asiatic cheetahs restricted to the mountains of the Iran.
The restoration of the great springbok migration in the Karoo. The trekbokke were in the millions and were from horizon to horizon. It was one of the greatest wildlife spectacles ever. I would love to see it again.
Other than that I would advocate for elephant populations throughout the world wherever proboscideans evolutionarily occurred, as well as rhino, lion, and hyena populations in temperate Eurasia.
The restoration of the great springbok migration in the Karoo. The trekbokke were in the millions and were from horizon to horizon. It was one of the greatest wildlife spectacles ever. I would love to see it again.
Apparently multiple packs of African wild dogs would merge together into megapacks in order to hunt these giant herds together. It would have been epic.
Genuine interest - how'd the springbok migration end?
Fences, sheep grazing and overhunting.
Jaguars, tapirs, and capybaras in Florida. Along with the range of bison and American Crocodiles being expanded.
I would love to see zoning laws in countries around the world change to promote 3 different types of zones: rural, urban, and wildland/rangeland. With this would be a huge reduction in space consuming and unproductive sub and exurban communities and using all of that space to create safe corridors for large mammals to hunt and migrate without being hit by cars or stumbling into a neighborhood endangering themselves and people.
Reintroduce all the South American megafauna that was killed by humans. Specially Gomphotheres and Giant sloths, Id love to see big native animals in my home country
Adequate Pleistocene rewinding in the north
Eminent domain all current and former (within 150 years) river & creek bottoms. Parcel them up for administrative purposes.
Every fifth parcel would be available for agriculture & ranchers for two-year cycles, provided most trees are left standing (most brush, bushes, and annuals/biennials could be tilled, and controlled burns may be necessary from time to time) rotating through each fifth so each is available two out of every ten years. Outside of their cycle, the other four-fifths of time they would be managed for wild space available for low/non impact recreation and subsistance uses such as hiking, foraging, hunting & fishing, wildlife/birdwatching, etc.
The ag & ranching would be limited to lower impact methods, for instance no/few chemical sprays, no or very limited fertilizers (and no synthetic fertilizers), and local operators would have first right of refusal on available sections.
If flooding is not conducive to human purposes in a particular year, there is no big loss financially from a farmer being unable to plant, it's public property. In those years either it would lie fallow or fees or sales (eg. tourism, fishing license) would contribute to overall costs to the regional government/agency. In years where range or planting can happen, the bids go to supporting the modest costs of land administration & maintenance, and relevant sciences (biology, geology, hydrology, etc).
Any towns or infrastructure would be relocated uphill out of the river bottom as much as possible, though obviously bridges and boat-access would remain and, in many areas, ports would be critical (you have to load barges somehow!) but shops, hotels, restaurants, etc would not be. This is not strictly an anti-human measure, I'm a big fan of people -- there is a practical element here in that floods in towns & structures are generally a bad thing. We need people to live in these areas, and there are plenty of people willing, but we do ourselves all a favor by not subjecting them to living in a flood zone.
My personal ideas.
Bring back Camels and relatives to elsewhere especially North America and various areas in Eurasia including China and Europe.
Bring back Bison to East Asia especially China and Korea and Japan.
Bring more Capybara and Peccaries to North America, and also other missing megafaunas such as Tapirs.
Bring back Tapirs to China.
Bring back megafaunas to Taiwan especially water buffaloes.
Bring back hippos to Madagascar.
Legally protect feasible introduced species in Australia and South America such as Camels as proxies.
- Wolves and elk in northern New England and the Adirondacks
- give most of the Great Plains back to the bison
- Red wolves and longleaf pine savannas in the southeast US; get rid of the pine plantations