Pleistocene Rewilding : Wild Animals May Roam Again

[Emancipated]

Listening to Science Friday on NPR and they're discussing a proposal called, Pleistocene Rewilding. Basically, before the Ice Age 10,000 years ago, there were large animals like Elephants, Cheetahs, Lions, et cetera were roaming free on North American plains. At this phase of the project, they want to guage the public's interest. Callers are so far saying nay and generally very pesimistic.

It would be fantastic, in my view. Anything to conserve nature is A OKAY in my books.

More indepth resource on this subject:
[url]http://futurefeeder.com/index.php/archives/2005/08/20/pleistocene-rewilding-wild-animals-may-roam-again/[/url]

Here's Science Friday podcast: [url]http://www.sciencefriday.com/pages/2005/Aug/hour2_081905.html[/url]

[Rogue_77]

Heard about that but I seriously doubt any of those animals can servive up here, specifically in winter. Back then all those animals had alot more fur to keep the cold out and since then, they've evolved to adapt in the hot, humid weather they are in now.

[UrbanPoet]

holy moly.. so instead of worrying about just bears, wolves, foxes, and cyotes up north.. i gotta worry about cheetahs, lions, and elephants :-0

[Rogue_77]

[QUOTE=UrbanPoet]holy moly.. so instead of worrying about just bears, wolves, foxes, and cyotes up north.. i gotta worry about cheetahs, lions, and elephants :-0[/QUOTE]

I can see it now, the backyards will start to look like a prison yard with barb wire et al

[Emancipated]

[QUOTE=Rogue_77]Heard about that but I seriously doubt any of those animals can servive up here, specifically in winter. Back then all those animals had alot more fur to keep the cold out and since then, they've evolved to adapt in the hot, humid weather they are in now.[/QUOTE]

The proposal would obviously call for hospitable habitat. They are not going to stick African Elephants in Alberta, for instance. The idea is to recreate the atmosphere and landscape of 10,000 years ago, prior to the Ice Age. Circa Ice Age, there were 5 different species of Elephants; and how many do we have present day? Some are more resilliant than others; like the ones with big ears are more adapted for hot weather as oppose to the smaller ones with smaller ears.

I trust the people involved know what they're doing.

[pandaharo]

I think it would be great, it will make the praries more interesting. African Safari in Canada!!! :)

[me!]

[QUOTE=pandaharo]I think it would be great, it will make the praries more interesting. African Safari in Canada!!! :)[/QUOTE]
u must have seen that pic in the Vancouver Sun recently. :-0