Restoring America's big, wild animals.
نویسنده
چکیده
ered on a ranch in New Mexico to ponder a bold plan. The scientists, trained in a variety of disciplines, ranged from the grand old men of the field to those of us earlier in our careers. The idea we were mulling over was the reintroduction of large vertebrates—megafauna—to North America. Most of these animals, such as mammoths and cheetahs, died out roughly 13,000 years ago, when humans from Eurasia began migrating to the continent. The theory—propounded 40 years ago by Paul Martin of the University of Arizona— is that overhunting by the new arrivals reduced the numbers of large vertebrates so severely that the populations could not recover. Called Pleistocene overkill, the concept was highly controversial at the time, but the general thesis that humans played a significant role is now widely accepted. Martin was present at the meeting in New Mexico, and his ideas on the loss of these animals, the ecological consequences, and what we should do about it formed the foundation of the proposal that emerged, which we dubbed Pleistocene rewilding. Although the cheetahs, lions and mammoths that once roamed North America are extinct, the same species or close relatives have survived elsewhere, and our discussions focused on introducing these substitutes to North American ecosystems. We believe that these efforts hold the potential to partially restore important ecological processes, such as predation and browsing, to ecosystems where they have been absent for millennia. The substitutes would also bring economic and cultural benefits. Not surprisingly, the published proposal evoked strong reactions. Those reactions are welcome, because debate about the conservation issues that underlie Pleistocene rewilding merit thorough discussion.
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عنوان ژورنال:
- Scientific American
دوره 296 6 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2007