Rewilding North America

What do you guys think. I posted it in the business section because I see it adversely affect african countries that rely on wildlife tourism.  nigeri hasnt developed its yet, but it could be a factor in the future

Kings of the wild frontier may return

Press Association
Wednesday August 17, 2005

African elephants forage for food in the Addo elephant national park near Port Elizabeth in South Africa
These African elephants live in the Addo elephant national park in South Africa, but could this be the scene on America's Great Plains? Photograph: John Hrusa/EPA
 

A bold conservation plan dubbed "Pleistocene Park" could see lions, cheetahs and elephants roaming America's Great Plains, it was revealed today.

Scientists have put forward a serious proposal to repopulate parts of North America with modern ancestors of wild animals that became extinct there about 10,000 years ago.

The idea is reminiscent of Jurassic Park, the novel and movie in which dinosaurs are brought back to life as tourist attractions.

The new project would also involve potentially dangerous animals - albeit ones from the modern era. Its aim is to revitalise ecosystems, generate ecotourism and create land management jobs to help struggling economies in rural areas of the US.

Article continues
During the Pleistocene era, between 1.8 million and 10,000 years ago, North America's ecosystems were far more diverse than they are today.

Big cats such as the American cheetah (Acinonyx trumani) and American lion (Panthera leo atrox) once roamed the plains, as did mammoths, mastodons, wild horses and the first camels.

The plan envisaged by scientists at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, would see these lost creatures replaced with present-day counterparts, including Asian and African elephants, lions, cheetahs, Bactrian camels, feral horses, and wild asses.

Harry Greene, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Cornell, said: "If we only have 10 minutes to present this idea, people think we're nuts. But if people hear the one-hour version, they realise they haven't thought about this as much as we have.

"Right now, we are investing all of our megafauna hopes on one continent - Africa."

The "rewilding" scheme, outlined in the journal Nature, would unfold in several phases. To start with, small numbers of animals, including elephants and lions, would be released on private land.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1551102,00.html

i don't think its interesting. I think its dangerous, thievery and evil. i'm glad im not the only one that sees it that way

African conservationists denounce proposal for giant US wildlife park

Thu Aug 18, 1:25 PM ET

NAIROBI (AFP) - African conservationists dismissed with contempt a
suggestion by US scientists that the best way to save the planet's
large wild mammals, most of them native to Africa, is to build a huge
nature preserve in the midwest United States.
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Wildlife experts in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania -- home to some of the
world's largest populations of so-called "megafauna" -- heaped scorn
on the idea, saying it was at best fantasy and at worse a threat to
local protection efforts and tourism.

Uganda Wildlife Authority chief Moses Mapesa gave the United States
credit for proficiency in numerous areas of science and technology but
said the suggestion published in this week's Nature magazine should be
reconsidered.

"This sounds like fiction to me," he told AFP in Kampala. "The
Americans are great people, they have gone to the moon, but I don't
think that this is a great way to do things in conservation.

"They cannot start dreaming things in a new age," Mapesa said. "If
they want to support and feel strongly as it sounds, they should
support conservation work where it is."

Kenya Wildlife Service spokesman Edward Indakwa said the idea that the
only way to save Africa's lions, cheetahs, elephants and rhinos was to
move them to the United States was unrealistic and might be seen by
some as theft.

"That is a romantic view," he told AFP in Nairobi. "Africa has
well-established animal conservation parks and besides, America does
not understand how to conserve some of these animals like the ones
they are suggesting.

"These animals have been our heritage for centuries," Indakwa said.
"If they once existed in the west and then became extinct, well, we
are not ready to let go of our own."

Veteran Kenya-based conservationist Ian Douglas-Hamilton, chairman of
Save the Elephants, called the proposal to create an American
Serengeti in the US heartland "a terrible and absurd idea."

"Africa has done a lot more to conserve its large mammals than the
United States," he told AFP. "If they want to preserve these animals,
they should help Africa set up animal conservation sanctuaries in
Africa itself, not America."



http://www.physorg.com/news5880.html

I haven't read the article but the responses suggest that the scientists are proposing that ALL the animals be moved from Africa to the USA.  If so, then yes, the idea is plainly stupid, if not. . . what can they do about it?  I can't think of many laws that would prohibit someone from introducing a sample of each to a preserve in the united states.

ok, now I'm going to read the article.

They article and the inteviews i heard stated that war and famine caused africans to harm these animals and they would be best kept in the US. in addition it will help american rural communities make money.  It may be a good for them from a business standpoint, but what of countries that depend on these animals.  Why doesnt the US relocate their wilde life, bears, wolves etc to africa?

Africa's largest animals arent in danger but the tone of the proposal states that the nature of africa warrants them taking these animals, and who knows, in future the largest animals will be in danger too. Besides why take elephants and lions when people are doing a great job reviving them

precisely. They are using some cooked up image of africa to justify robbing it of its heritage.