Pleistocene Rewilding: Is it Really a Good Idea? Correction and Debunk

[thephenom]

I just love the idea of Pleistocene rewilding. I'm all for it.

[nsturby]

Pleistocene Rewilding could work in warm areas like the Southwestern usa the Brazilian savanna and Mediterrian Europe seing as how realitives of extinct megafauna like elephants and rhinos are found in warm reigions . Although colder reigions and islands would be harder

[Antonya]

In alternative program that could happen in north america is where natives will be introduced to their historical range animals such as grizzly bears, cougars, gray wolf's, elk, bison,

[jojrab]

I love the notion of Pleistocene Rewilding. But first, we must rewild contemporary species, as no one will accept pachyderms if they can't even accept rewilding extant species like bison in the American West.

[thomaszaccone]

I think it would be neat to bring back Pleistocene Animals in appropriate areas. Imagine seeing herds of mammoths. Pythons are nota real problem. What Florida needs is a few leather companies.

[rummugtheorc]

Can you imagine a American Pleistocene Park. If I was rich, I would fund it myself!!!!

[jointcerulean]

Pleistocene rewilding must happen at some point in time and Out of all the ecosystems, Australia sorely needs Pleistocene rewilding efforts the most.

[Antonya]

Pleistocene rewilding could work in the great plains

[lightdark]

It all comes down to making unproductive lands grasslands again. The other choice is wanting forests for carbon capture. Also, it's important to understand how the weather and rain patterns will change if a dustbowl turns green or if a massive forest develops.

[tadblackington]

I like the concept and it is in many ways needed. Mega fauna is absolutely needed to sustain ecosystem function, but they would present mega management issues. That shouldn't stop us from working it out. I do have a couple issues with your species list. Tigers are not at all very similar to the sabre-toothed cats. Tigers fill the same roll as jaguar which were present throughout north America. So why not use them?

[astralaxolotl]

I'm all for rewilding but not so sure on the reintroduction of tropical species to temperate areas as they aren't the same species as was once there. I agree that extant species that have gone extinct due to human pressures in the past 10, 000 or so years should be reintroduced though. I recommend Feral by George Monbiot, great book!

[coyotemoonc]

Pythons could have a predator through Jaguars which used to range top to bottom of the Americas in the Pleistocene also!

[carginfer]

We have already intervened, why shouldn't we try to fix the damage that we have already caused?

[Theforsakenmedia]

I am 100% supportive of Pleistocene rewilding. Another issue that the lack of giant mega fauna has caused is rampant massive wildfires. Normally, elephants and rhinos crush debris on the ground and eat large grass and shrubs that become too numerous and that deer and moose simply can't handle. Another thing is that Elephants knock down trees which causes trees to become more separated reducing the risk of one tree catching another tree on fire. The lack of large mega fauna has been a disaster in North America because for one, without large predator cats like tigers and lions, bison and moose populations have grown out of control because pumas and wolves cannot handle them on their own. Also the permafrost is melting causing the release of massive amounts of deadly methane into the atmosphere drastically increasing global warming where as large mega fauna pack down the ice reducing the temperatures by up to 16 degree F keeping the perma frost frozen. Also rhinos will help greatly with keeping grasslands healthy and here in the USA poaching of these animals would be almost non existent compared to poverty stricken Africa and India where people there are more ignorant of what they're doing by killing critically endangered animals, being desperate for money and getting pulled into the chinese medicine trade etc. Here in the USA that wouldn't be an issue. We could also release Javan Rhinos to the everglades of florida where they would thrive along with jaguars where they would eat the pythons.

[fishmob]

Sorry if my voice sounds rough,   haven't practiced recording my voice in a long time.

[seaslug]

You need to take speaking classes from Nicolas Cage.

[sarban]

I support it, but not to the same radical degree that you're proposing. However, one issue I want to raise is the filling of niches after the Pleistocene extinction event. I'll give an example where it happened. Europe and North Asia used to have Eurasian lions, European leopards, cave bears, European hyenas, and some other pantherine species (European jaguar?). Since the animals I listed were exterminated, this gave way for the wolf to colonize most of Europe (and North Asia) and thus the wolf filled the ecological niche left open by the extinct pantherines, hyenas, and other carnivorans. So how would you deal with this issue? Is it still safe to bring back spotted hyenas, lions, and leopards to Europe and North Asia? I'm sure there are many other similar cases, but I just want to ask about this specific case here.

[erichusher]

Look up 'Pleistocene Park.'  End of argument.

[Guacamoc]

9:30 I still think it's rather shortsighted to say that ground sloths and giant armadillos can be substituted with other large animals with similar niches. They evolved differently for a different climate, thus it would be a better use of resources to revive the extinct animals to resume their niches.

[deadinteresting]

what about all the life that was destroyed that we no little or nothing about? mini beasts/insects? micro flora.. its a nice thought but its too late!