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August 19, 2005
African Lions in South Dakota?
More animal news - a group of scientists have proposed the reintroduction of large mammals such as elephants, lions, cheetahs and wild horses to North America to replace populations lost 13,000 years ago.
Well, first off, relax, it's just a proposal, nothing more than an idea on paper. Second, the creatures would be in enclosed parks. However, considering the problem ranchers are having with bison and wolves out west, consider the additional worry of having a pride of hungry lions or a family group of elephants coming in to stomp on your watermelon patch. Then again, that might be kinda cool.
While I'm all for the genetic re-engineering that could hail the return of the mastodon, this crazy-ass proposal only makes preservationists and environmentalists look like nutbags. The ultra-conservative conservationist notion that we can return the entire continent to a state similar to the Pleistocene age is absurd. It's not a radical idea, it's conservative, and it kind of insinuates that things were 'pure' before humans arrived and that we are somehow a force of corruption outside the goings-on of nature. Humans arrived like any other species via migration, got their flint-tipped spear on, and ate some giant ground sloth, giant beaver, and some pachyderms for good measure. And they got their asses eaten by some saber-toothed tiger in the process too, but they did not corrupt the Pleistocene as the proposal implies, where we should 'restore' our continent to pre-Unklok the Caveman conditions.
Plus, the assumption that Africa can't handle their own conservation efforts is a little arrogant too. They certainly could use the tourist dollars developing more conservation parks down there. Plus we have our own resident wildlife populations to protect. Let's work on keeping the condors, terrapins, paddlefish and karner's blue butterfly populations stable first. And as usual, these scientists should have spoken to a communications/marketing person before they released the proposal...it would have lessened the freak out factor a bit, doing less damage to the preservation movement in the process.
Check out this and these amazing photos of the tornado damage done to Stoughton, Wisconsin last night. Stoughton is near Madison, and yes, we have tornadoes in Wisconsin - quite a lot of them in fact. In other Wisconsin news, there are alarming numbers of guys on the team from Wisconsin. But most of them are from Madison (the cool, hip college town in the state) and I went to school in Stevens Point, so they probably think I'm a potato-eating, Point Beer drinking hick.
Posted by jimbo at August 19, 2005 11:16 AM
Comments
Being from South Dakota (west river) orginally (in S. Cal now...not fun) - I think this is the coolest idea ever! Much better than the "Buffalo Commons" idea of a few years back. Though the question of what a bunch of large predators are going to feed on should be thought out a bit more...though there are certain H. Sapiens around that could stand in a springbok...
Posted by: buk at August 19, 2005 11:07 AM
But 'cha are, Blanche, ya are...
Posted by: stebbins at August 19, 2005 11:16 AM
Theyr ecently re-introduced beaver on the San Pedro River here in Arizona. Of course the ranchers all objected, until the beaver made some nice ponds and the cows had ready-made water holes.
I'm not a big fan of zoos, but they are increasingly serving their purpose to prevent certain species from going extinct in the wild. I could see some small to medium-sized enclosures with specific breeds (rhinos, giraffes, etc)set up in rural Great Plains areas. These could serve a dual purpose- help preserve certain endangered species while generating tourist dollars in communities that are dying off. Nothing too radical about that, although I think it would be cool to have some of the huge herds of bison come back.
Posted by: homer at August 19, 2005 12:02 PM
I'm just leery of introducing non-native species into an existing habitat. Not that elephants are likely to be difficult to track. I agree though: don't we have enough of our own to worry about? Supporting African states in their efforts to conserve wildlife should be a priority.
Whatever about the beer; aren't the hipsters drinking that ghettoness that is PBR? You should turn them onto Naty Bo, get their guts in motion.
Posted by: copperred at August 19, 2005 12:13 PM
Generally, I would be all for Ted Turner establishing prides of lions and herds of elephants on his vast tracts of land out West; however, since he is no longer married to Jane Fonda, it seems there would be less of a likelihood of her getting (a) eaten or (b) trampled. So why go through all the trouble.
Incidentally, I don't have anything personally against Jane Fonda (although I hear Monster-In-Law was awful), just jumping on the ole, Bash-Jane-Fonda-For-Fun Bandwagon.
Posted by: Boo Augustus at August 22, 2005 9:56 AM
Tsk tsk tsk. Did we learn 'nothing' from Jurassic Park?
Posted by: Chris at August 22, 2005 10:25 AM