31–40 of 42 posts
I had no idea there were lions in Alaska and Canada before. If they made it until there, I wonder what stopped them from going down south...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's something perverse about the idea of reanimating a species essentially for our own enjoyment (edification, whatever you want to call it) after it died out through natural processes.
The leading candidate for this extinction was the introduction of humans equipped with bows and arrows into its environment through the Bering land bridge. The African versions of big species were able to co-evolve along with humans as we developed spears, fire, etc. The American ones did not. This is why the American versions of everything from horses to cheetahs disappeared.
I had no idea there were lions in Alaska and Canada before. If they made it until there, I wonder what stopped them from going down south...
There are still lions in the Americas today, just most people don't think of them[1][2][3] as such despite being nearly as large as their African counterparts. Same subfamily as cheetahs[4]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_panther [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felinae
I had no idea there were lions in Alaska and Canada before. If they made it until there, I wonder what stopped them from going down south...
The American Lion reached all the way down to South America. They were even bigger than today's African Lions
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have never been comfortable with the concept of reintroducing a species that we haven't directly observed. We can't predict the impact one may have on its environment or disruption to the food chain. Reintroducing a species which we are familiar with, say after over hunting by poachers, is more likely to produce the expected results without complications because we have prior knowledge of that species role in natur…
There's something perverse about the idea of reanimating a species essentially for our own enjoyment (edification, whatever you want to call it) after it died out through natural processes.
Bring them back I say.
I had no idea there were lions in Alaska and Canada before. If they made it until there, I wonder what stopped them from going down south...
There were way more large mammals everywhere in the world around that time. Somehow all these species disappeared as soon as humans showed up on the scene, strangely enough...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But then by restoring the ecosystem to be similar to your conception of a prior state aren't you preventing the continued maturation of that ecosystem, effectively stopping the system from evolving further?
Not. First of all is not our "conception" of a previous state. We know that Europe had a big mammal fauna in the past and that this fauna was erradicated. Second, We are restoring the coevolution and making the system stronger in fact. A well managed predator benefit to thousands, maybe hundreds of species. Entire communities of insects and fungi need the temporary ecosystems created by predators. Preys benefit also…
Attempts to introduce species that we thought we understood well have turned decidedly sour in the past, introducing species we know relatively nothing about is unlikely to go well.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not. First of all is not our "conception" of a previous state. We know that Europe had a big mammal fauna in the past and that this fauna was erradicated. Second, We are restoring the coevolution and making the system stronger in fact. A well managed predator benefit to thousands, maybe hundreds of species. Entire communities of insects and fungi need the temporary ecosystems created by predators. Preys benefit also…
I used the word conception because the view of a past ecosystem is always going to be missing details. Predator prey interactions are chaotic in simplified systems. If there's an insect that affected a plant then herbivorous prey of a mammalian predator can be impacted in ways that can alter the entire system causing an imbalance that has not been allowed for. It is a conception because it is not the previous state y…
Attempts to introduce species have turned decidedly sour in the past... if introducted in ecosystems where they do not belong. Reintroducting a locally extinct species is a different case.
Big felines are very well known animals. Present in all zoos of the world and reproducted in captivity since many years ago. There are entire books published about big feline surgery for example.
It is a conception because it is not the previous state you're returning to.
This is a false problem. The goal is not to achieve a theorical ideal previous state, is to restaurate a missing node to be able to reach a range of valid stable states. Is the same difference as "to reconnect a route bombed in 1940 to drive from a to b" or "to try to frozen the area in 1940". Nobody is talking about to living in caves again and working three hours each day.
If there's an insect that affected a plant... causing an imbalance that has not been allowed for.
All imbalances are "allowed" in fact, there is not a nature police, but your imbalance will never occur. Hervibores will just start eating other species of plants or migrate and quit the area followed by predators until the plant species recover. Mature ecosystems are buffered and can deal with known changes.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are still lions in the Americas today, just most people don't think of them[1][2][3] as such despite being nearly as large as their African counterparts. Same subfamily as cheetahs[4]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florida_panther [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felinae
Aw, come on, those aren't real lions :)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well we don't have to reintroduce them. We can just keep them in zoos or something. Or at least sterilize them at first. Chances are, they died off because they got out-competed anyway.
By whom? There's nothing comparable present now where they used to dwell.