Rewilding

Pleistohorse said:

Interesting . It’s been my view for a while and argued on this site. Outside of Island and isolated waters, I’m a let nature take its course kind of guy. Invasive Species orthodoxy is definitely a value judgement not always rooted in scientific analysis. A comment someone once made, in response to one my post arguing invasive species often lead to more complex ecosystems and greater species diversity, about how Nilgai were “devastating” south Texas comes to mind.

I think the work of researchers like this gentleman should be looked at critically rather than assumedly (or orthodoxly).

Anyway, I thought this was interesting.

I placed it in “rewilding” due to wild equids of this type being native to North America even if they didn’t survive the invasive arrival of Homo Sapiens 10,000-plus years ago. Or climate change and a comet impact if you prefer. I imagine it was likely an A+B+C event where factor A (arrival of Humans) was the key triggering event of the mass extinction of most large mammals from the Western Hemisphere. B+C just finished off the more vulnerable and less adaptive.
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Invasive species are the exact opposite of nature, and leaving them to do what they do is not "letting nature take its course". They do not lead to more complex ecosystems (they only make them more uniform) or contribute to greater diversity (it goes down on a global scale, and often a local one as well).
 
Pleistohorse said:

Interesting . It’s been my view for a while and argued on this site. Outside of Island and isolated waters, I’m a let nature take its course kind of guy. Invasive Species orthodoxy is definitely a value judgement not always rooted in scientific analysis. A comment someone once made, in response to one my post arguing invasive species often lead to more complex ecosystems and greater species diversity, about how Nilgai were “devastating” south Texas comes to mind.

I think the work of researchers like this gentleman should be looked at critically rather than assumedly (or orthodoxly).

Anyway, I thought this was interesting.

I placed it in “rewilding” due to wild equids of this type being native to North America even if they didn’t survive the invasive arrival of Homo Sapiens 10,000-plus years ago. Or climate change and a comet impact if you prefer. I imagine it was likely an A+B+C event where factor A (arrival of Humans) was the key triggering event of the mass extinction of most large mammals from the Western Hemisphere. B+C just finished off the more vulnerable and less adaptive.
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And this same guy (doing the presentation) believes hippos somehow ecologically replace an extinct camelid. That alone makes me not take him seriously.
 
Pantheraman said:
And this same guy (doing the presentation) believes hippos somehow ecologically replace an extinct camelid. That alone makes me not take him seriously.
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He has a very emotional and irrational idea of natural system.
But despite his claims, Equuids (unlike hjippos ofcause) are refilling a extinct niche in the ecco system. Unlike in Europe. North America still has large habitat for reinterducing extinct mega fauna
 
Just to point, that extinct North American equids were horses, not donkeys, there is no indication that extinct American horses lived in semideserts, no indication that extinct American horses dug waterholes, there is no information that modern wild horses dig waterholes in their native range...

The idea of lost ecosystem role of North American megafauna has been around for many years, but almost no serious research on this lost ecosystem role was done. So, at this point, nobody can tell whether this lost ecosystem role is restored, or something different happens altogether. One cannot even tell whether grazing common domestic cows or goats is different or similar to grazing of extinct ground sloths or Harrington's mountain goats...
 
Jurek7 said:
Just to point, that extinct North American equids were horses, not donkeys, there is no indication that extinct American horses lived in semideserts, no indication that extinct American horses dug waterholes, there is no information that modern wild horses dig waterholes in their native range...

The idea of lost ecosystem role of North American megafauna has been around for many years, but almost no serious research on this lost ecosystem role was done. So, at this point, nobody can tell whether this lost ecosystem role is restored, or something different happens altogether. One cannot even tell whether grazing common domestic cows or goats is different or similar to grazing of extinct ground sloths or Harrington's mountain goats...
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I don’t know…just a quick look at Wikipedia (I know, I know) indicates that Wild Asses (or something very similar) were present in North America. They also existed in Alaska several thousand years ago.

You may be right about that no population of Wild Horses dig wells for water, but Wikipedia (I know…the source leaves much to be desired) in its article about Asian Wild Asses says that the animals will indeed dig to find water.

Again, I don’t consider myself right or wrong on this issue…it’s a value judgment. The National Park Service says that the Feral Ass threatens Desert Bighorns and Tortoises. If true (really true…not presumed to be) that would have to be taken into consideration. My take is that another herbivore in an area that supported many more in the past than it does now…might lead to an adjustment in the current local ecology. However, I think that adjustment would be more of a correction and opportunity, rather than a destruction.

Might be wrong, just trying to get people to talk about it.
 
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While I'm not a fan of the idea of introducing lions and cheetahs to North America, I've been a big fan of rewilding cougars in eastern North America for 3 reasons.

1. It would give the eastern woodlands a much more wild feel. To me, top predators represent wildness, something we don't truly have east of the Mississippi River with their absence.

2. To actually restore balance to the forests. Here in states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, etc, we have deer populations that are simply way too big and are causing massive damage to the ecosystem by overbrowsing. That and we have a big risk of hitting one with our vehicles. And they're not the only ungulates doing damage. Feral Hogs, an invasive species, are also causing a ruckus in the ecosystem. As for the elk, yes, it's cool their numbers are increasing right now until they eventually become overpopulated and become worse than the deer. Basically, we have an ecosystem that's out of whack, and hunters are very pitiful at filling in for top predators, so we need the cougar to help restore the landscape of fear in the woods.

3. The presence of these cats might help American Burying Beetles due to more carrion being available in the form of cougar kills. Out west, cougar kills provide homes for 215 beetle species, 113 of which are carrion dependent.
 
A few thoughts/musings/half-baked ideas that might be of interest & relevance to this thread:

  • The rewilding ethos does not yet seem to be being extensively applied in South & Southeast Asia, though this does seem to be changing. Species like wild water buffalo are missing almost entirely from their historical ranges in Indochina/ the Greater Sunda islands, and would presumably have a comparable ecological impact upon reintroduction to wisent & 'rewilded' domestic cattle in Europe. In most of this region, the threats from hunting would understandably be quite different for such a project than a similar scheme in Europe, but could these be overcome with sufficient funding and, crucially, outreach and trust-building with local communities?
  • Although facing similarly critically low numbers, the circumstances of the two rhino species in the region are very different. While the focus with the Sumatran seems quite rightly in my opinion to be on bringing animals together at a single secure location, the sole location of the Javan species is highly vulnerable to stochastic factors such as earthquakes. The reintroduction of the species to a second site as a backup population and to increase carrying capacity would seem to be wise, but are there suitable locations for such a project on Indonesia's most populated island?
  • Jumping geographically, some work has suggested that the extinct Aldabrachelys abrupta, part of Madagascar's extinct megafauna, might be better considered as a conspecific to the living A.gigantea, the Aldabra giant tortoise. If it were brought to Madagascar alongside, say, reforestation projects in the island's central highlands to combat erosion, this could be considered a true reintroduction, unlike the (highly succesful) introduction of this species to the Mascarenes as a proxy for extinct Cylindraspis tortoises. Trials have already shown that this species is able to distribute the seeds of endemic Malagasy baobab species.
  • It would be interesting to see analysis comparing the relative cost of different methods of improving biodiversity's ability to adapt to climate change, for example construction of 'wildlife bridges' and habitat corridors vs assisted translocations to the leading edge/outside of a species' previous natural range. Such research seems largely lacking from the literature, and would greatly help drive the future direction of rewilding.
  • 'Rewilding' has come a long way from its 1990s routes in American schemes of 'cores, corridors and carnivores' to the buzzword of much environmental discourse today. But do projects such as reintroductions of species with smaller, not-necessarily-keystone ecosystem roles, from glow worms to grasshoppers to pool frogs, really count as rewilding, and if they don't is it even problematic to label them as such?
 
I was looking at the Rewilding Europe annual report for 2021 and noticed one thing of interest.

The Dalmatian pelican reintroduction project to Belgium and the Netherlands will be coordinated with researchers in the United Kingdom exploring similar plans in the Thames estuary.

The report also found much later evidence for pelicans in the Low Countries than previously believed, with them surviving to the Middle Ages (around the same time that Eurasian crane and white-tailed eagle were also extirpated).

Information comes from page 43 of this document (under the heading 'Pelicans in the Low Countries?):
Rewilding Europe

Not sure how these plans might be affected by the current state of the Dalmatian pelican elsewhere in Europe - this year, they may have declined by 40% because of bird flu:
Europe's Dalmatian Pelican population decimated by bird flu - BirdGuides
 
I have just seen this story about the effects of rewilding on other species.

The reintroduction of cheetahs and lions in 2017 in Liwonde National Park, Malawi, has prompted a recolonisation of the park by vultures, which have been absent from the area for around twenty years. The first showed up within days of the cheetahs arriving, when they were still being kept in their pre-release enclosures.

The first two species to reappear were the critically endangered white-backed and hooded vultures. Since then, another three species have been recorded - the critically endangered white-headed vulture, endangered lappet-faced vulture and critically endangered Ruppell's griffon. The latter is especially surprising, as they had never been recorded in Malawi before and are usually associated with East Africa and the Sahel.

Last year, rangers in the park found three white-backed vulture nests in the top of borassus palm trees, the first recorded breeding in the area for twenty years.

More information can be found in the link below:
Cheetah reintroduction in Malawi brings vultures back to the skies

The scientific paper about sightings of Ruppell's griffons can be found here:
https://www.researchgate.net/public...f_Ruppell's_Vultures_Gyps_rueppelli_in_Malawi
 
Rewilding Europe have recently launched their tenth rewilding landscape - the Iberian Highlands, which is located in the Southern Iberian Chain, a 500-kilometre mountain range in central-eastern Spain.

The area is prime for rewilding, with high levels of land abandonment and plenty of scope for species reintroductions. Among species either already being released or being planned for reintroduction there are:

- Scavenging birds: Cinerous vultures are already being acclimatised in pre-release enclosures, bearded vultures are planned for translocation from the Pyrenees in conjunction with using feeding platforms and visual lures to encourage natural recolonisation and a feasibility study is being carried out for the eventual release of captive-bred red kites.

- Grazing mammals: A herd of Tauros cattle are already living in one part of the Rewilding Area (La Maleza) and a herd of eleven semi-wild horses have been released at Dehesa de Solanillos and already started breeding - further planned releases this year will take numbers to above twenty. Roe, fallow and red deer and wild boar are already present in the area. There are plans to reintroduce Iberian ibex to the most rugged areas. Also, there are large areas of arid steppe where there are plans to release kulan, which are hoped will optimise the habitat for birds such as Dupont's lark, black-bellied sandgrouse and both little and great bustards.

- Iberian lynx: These cats disppeared from the area when their rabbit prey died out from introduced diseases. To begin with, an experimental release is being mapped out that will use animals unsuitable for breeding in captivity. If this is successful, the reintroduction will be scaled up to establish a permanent population in the highlands.

- Black woodpecker: Although not mentioned much, the rewilding vision for the area states that the hope is that these birds will be reintroduced within ten years to create a more complex deadwood habitat and act as an emblem for the protection of the last old-growth forests in the Iberian Highlands.

Another part of this rewilding project will be removing dams and creating fish ladders to try and restore movements of migratory fish within the landscape.

The page about the rewilding area is included here:
Iberian Highlands | Rewilding Europe

The news article about the creation of the rewilding area can be seen here:
Iberian Highlands becomes Rewilding Europe’s tenth landscape | Rewilding Europe
 
The European Wildlife Comeback Fund has announced its first six grant recipients, each returning species to parts of Europe. These projects are:

1. Releasing herds of 20 red and fallow deer to the 6,000 hectare Stambulsky Island in the Ukrainian Danube Delta. The release is planned for the early part of this year.

2. Releasing 17 Eurasian lynx into the Polish province of Western Pomerania, intended to be complete by the end of the spring.

3. Reintroducing the dung beetle Scarabaeus laticollis to two sites in southwest France where the species became extinct in the 1960s.

4. Reintroducing the Bonnelli's eagle to Sardinia, where they became extinct in the 1990s. Spanish birds will be sourced from both wild and captive-bred settings, with releases scheduled for late spring and early summer.

5. Releasing two batches of around 100 water voles to the Cober Valley in Cornwall, UK. One release will happen in September 2023 and the second in June 2024.

6. Three Sorraia horses and four roe deer to be reintroduced to Quinta do Pisao, Portugal. The horse release will happen in March 2023 and the deer in November 2023.

More information can be found in the link below:
The European Wildlife Comeback Fund swings into action with support for multiple releases | Rewilding Europe
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Rewilding Europe have recently launched their tenth rewilding landscape - the Iberian Highlands, which is located in the Southern Iberian Chain, a 500-kilometre mountain range in central-eastern Spain.
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Also, there are large areas of arid steppe where there are plans to release kulan, which are hoped will optimise the habitat for birds such as Dupont's lark, black-bellied sandgrouse and both little and great bustards.
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Two related papers:

1. Both Kulan and Onager are genetically the same as the extinct European Wild Ass Equus hydruntinus which was widely distributed in Europe

Taming the late Quaternary phylogeography of the Eurasiatic wild ass through ancient and modern DNA

2. Kulans (= European Wild Asses) lived in Europe long after the Ice Age, until the Iron Age. There are Holocene records from Armenia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, southern France, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine:

Holocene extinction dynamics of Equus hydruntinus, a late-surviving European megafaunal mammal - ScienceDirect
https://www.researchgate.net/profil...late-surviving-European-megafaunal-mammal.pdf

Given that the current habitat of Kulan and Onager is unsafe - weak protection and uncontrollable poaching, it would be interesting to release Kulan somewhere in Europe. What about Spanish steppes near Zaragoza or Almeria, Neusiedler See in Austria or Hortobagy in Hungary?
 
Jurek7 said:
Two related papers:

1. Both Kulan and Onager are genetically the same as the extinct European Wild Ass Equus hydruntinus which was widely distributed in Europe

Taming the late Quaternary phylogeography of the Eurasiatic wild ass through ancient and modern DNA

2. Kulans (= European Wild Asses) lived in Europe long after the Ice Age, until the Iron Age. There are Holocene records from Armenia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, southern France, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine:

Holocene extinction dynamics of Equus hydruntinus, a late-surviving European megafaunal mammal - ScienceDirect
https://www.researchgate.net/profil...late-surviving-European-megafaunal-mammal.pdf

Given that the current habitat of Kulan and Onager is unsafe - weak protection and uncontrollable poaching, it would be interesting to release Kulan somewhere in Europe. What about Spanish steppes near Zaragoza or Almeria, Neusiedler See in Austria or Hortobagy in Hungary?
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European wild ass are conspecific with kulan/onager but I wouldn't say they are genetically the same. As far as I am aware they were a different subspecies. That being said I do think this reintroduction is interesting and it would be very nice to have wild equids in Europe once again (I'm aware of some introductions of Przewalski's horse as a substitute for tarpan).
 
Jurek7 said:
Both Kulan and Onager are genetically the same as the extinct European Wild Ass Equus hydruntinus which was widely distributed in Europe
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Jurek7 said:
2. Kulans (= European Wild Asses) lived in Europe long after the Ice Age, until the Iron Age. There are Holocene records from Armenia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, southern France, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine:
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Looking at the papers in question, you are slightly misrepresenting the information presented.

Firstly, the results explicitly state that the European Wild Ass was genetically distinct from extant wild ass taxa (although it does state that all European and Asian taxa belong within a single species) and that it is closest to the Indian khur and Turkmen populations of Kulan, rather than the geographically-closer Onager, Hemippe and Iranian populations of Kulan; as such it is incorrect to state that "both kulan and onager are genetically the same as the extinct European Wild Ass".

Secondly, the *only* Iron Age records of hydruntinus cited within the latter paper are located within Georgia, Armenia and Iran. Barring these Caucasian records (which the first paper states "do not contain the genetic signature of hydruntines, but rather can be ascribed to other hemione clades") all European records barring a single phalanx dating to the Copper Age found in Spain are Mesolithic or Neolithic.

Despite this, I actually agree with you that onager/kulan would make a good substitution for rewilding in the Iberian Peninsula and the steppes of Central and Eastern Europe :)
 
Mayki said:
it would be very nice to have wild equids in Europe once again (I'm aware of some introductions of Przewalski's horse as a substitute for tarpan).
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Funnily enough, that's actually a reintroduction programme which doesn't really work as a fitting substitute - the Przewalski Horse is a steppe and plains species, whilst the Tarpan was (as far as we can tell) a forest and woodland species.
 
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