Rewilding

What are people’s opinions on here about the usage of proxy species (close living relatives and ecological analogues of extinct species and subspecies) in rewilding programs, e.g. African cheetahs as a proxy for the extinct Miracinonyx trumani? I think that if done carefully it can not only fill in niches left empty due to anthropogenic extinctions, but also aid in the conservation of many endangered species by creating new wild and semi-wild populations of animals whose current wild populations are in decline. I’d like to hear whether others on here share my opinion or if they disagree, and what your perspectives are on this subject.
 
The Cassowary said:
What are people’s opinions on here about the usage of proxy species (close living relatives and ecological analogues of extinct species and subspecies) in rewilding programs, e.g. African cheetahs as a proxy for the extinct Miracinonyx trumani? I think that if done carefully it can not only fill in niches left empty due to anthropogenic extinctions, but also aid in the conservation of many endangered species by creating new wild and semi-wild populations of animals whose current wild populations are in decline. I’d like to hear whether others on here share my opinion or if they disagree, and what your perspectives are on this subject.
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In a recent rewilding symposium, a megafauna specialist argued for a nuanced view on non-native species and that functionality, and not nativity, should be the main criterion. Megafauna has an enormous natural capacity to disperse and can therefore easily (re)colonize areas suitable for them if they have the opportunity to do so. Given that they generally are relatively tolerant for climatic variables and are behaviourally very flexible, the main problem that inhibits dispersion for megafauna is landscape use by humans.

In Europe, the focus is now mainly on restoring still extant "native" species to parts of their former range. The main proxies used are domestic animals. Both horse and cattle were very common and widespread in Europe before humans extirpated the wild populations, and there's a push in European rewilding to get them back into the wild and under natural selection again. To do this, a variety of traditional breeds as well as back-bred animals are used as proxies for their wild ancestors. Because they're relatively easy to manage, they can make for a fairly benign introduction to get people and the ecosystem used to have large free-roaming animals around (which is important in the more densely populated areas). I know domestic pigs are also used (e.g. at the Knepp Estate), but given how successful and widespread wild boar is there's little need for that on the continent.

Besides domestics, contemporary water buffalo is sometimes used a proxy for the extinct European water buffalo. and Przewalski's horses are used in some areas instead of semi-wild or dedomesticated horses. Then there's fallow deer, often considered exotic but widely introduced already. So far there are no serious projects in Europe (that I know of) to introduce more "exotic" megafauna. Given how challenging it already is for society to adapt again to the presence of relatively "benign" megafauna like deer and boar, I don't think we'll be seeing a lot of exotic proxies in Europe for the decades to come. I'm not saying it cannot (or should not) happen, but it needs time, and there are likely more societal concerns then ecological ones. Personally I would much rather see the species we still have in Europe to be restored to as much of their potential range as possible. That is already a tremendous challenge and desperately needed.

In the meantime, the discussion should go on, and it would be nice to have an experimental reserve where some of the big names could be introduced to study their effects on the ecosystem. Don't forget that our understanding of many species is highly limited, because at this moment we only observe them in low densities at only a fraction of their former range. It is not unlikely that the ecological amplitude of many species is much wider than we currently understand, and that they affect their system in ways we cannot even imagine now.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
Seen this article making the rounds about another series of planned reintroductions in Britain - two students, currently studying for their A-levels, have established a company that intends to bring back the European pond turtle and the moor, agile and European tree frogs to Britain as well as expand the reintroduction of pool frogs.

The main article is here:
'Who doesn't love a turtle?' The teenage boys on a mission – to rewild Britain with reptiles

A guest blog written by them is included here:
Guest blog by Celtic Reptile and Amphibian - Mark Avery
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When did the pond turtle go extinct in the UK ?
 
The Cassowary said:
What are people’s opinions on here about the usage of proxy species (close living relatives and ecological analogues of extinct species and subspecies) in rewilding programs, e.g. African cheetahs as a proxy for the extinct Miracinonyx trumani? I think that if done carefully it can not only fill in niches left empty due to anthropogenic extinctions, but also aid in the conservation of many endangered species by creating new wild and semi-wild populations of animals whose current wild populations are in decline. I’d like to hear whether others on here share my opinion or if they disagree, and what your perspectives are on this subject.
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I am for, when several conditions are met. If the same species is released, it is OK. Especially, if the species itself is threatened, as you said. When it is a different species, preferably from the same genus, there should be a clear idea what was the ecological role of the extinct species, which needs to be replaced.

It can be tricky, because even closely related species can have different ecological requirements and roles. For example, introduced American mink in Europe is much more damaging to native waterfowl and water voles than native European mink. That Polynesian, black and brown rats introduced to islands have different effect on native fauna is also well known.

So I am for, for example, restoration of Bolson tortoises in Texas, Aldabra tortoise on Mauritius and Reunion, european bison, kulan and water buffalo in Europe, bison in Siberia, and possibly e.g. saiga and Przewalski horses in American prairies.

But otherwise, it gets tricky. The idea of living cheetah replacing extinct American cheetah comes from the fact that pronghorn run with higher speed and extreme endurance excessive to outrun any living American predator. The hypothesis is that it is an relict adaptation to escape American cheetah, no longer useful. However, living cheetah has much higher sprint and absolutely no endurance. So living cheetahs clearly are a bad replacement of the American cheetah. And pronghorn are not over-breeding, so there is no obvious need of an additional predator to regulate pronghorn population.
 
Jurek7 said:
I am for, when several conditions are met. If the same species is released, it is OK. Especially, if the species itself is threatened, as you said. When it is a different species, preferably from the same genus, there should be a clear idea what was the ecological role of the extinct species, which needs to be replaced.

It can be tricky, because even closely related species can have different ecological requirements and roles. For example, introduced American mink in Europe is much more damaging to native waterfowl and water voles than native European mink. That Polynesian, black and brown rats introduced to islands have different effect on native fauna is also well known.

So I am for, for example, restoration of Bolson tortoises in Texas, Aldabra tortoise on Mauritius and Reunion, european bison, kulan and water buffalo in Europe, bison in Siberia, and possibly e.g. saiga and Przewalski horses in American prairies.

But otherwise, it gets tricky. The idea of living cheetah replacing extinct American cheetah comes from the fact that pronghorn run with higher speed and extreme endurance excessive to outrun any living American predator. The hypothesis is that it is an relict adaptation to escape American cheetah, no longer useful. However, living cheetah has much higher sprint and absolutely no endurance. So living cheetahs clearly are a bad replacement of the American cheetah. And pronghorn are not over-breeding, so there is no obvious need of an additional predator to regulate pronghorn population.
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Well said @Jurek7 !

Pretty much describes my own views on rewilding too , I'm very cynical about cheetahs, saiga and przewalski horses in the USA but the other examples you cite are ones that I find interesting cases / possibilities.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
From what I can gather, the main cause of extinction was almost certainly climatic.
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I guess that it will be threatened with anthropogenic climate change as a driver of decline in the near future too.

I dont know about the feasibility of this species being rewilded in the UK but the fact is that the Eurasian bison is being brought back and those went extinct approximately 7000 years ago.

I suppose in the case of this reptile and providing that it can both be done and not adversely impact native biodiversity (though of course the turtle is of course a long lost native) I just think why not ?
 
birdsandbats said:
I think it's a terrible idea to introduce horses and Cheetahs to the Americas. Just because there's some fossil species doesn't mean they are native species that would provide benefits to the ecosystem. Far from it, in fact!
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I remember reading something about an idea to establish ecological proxies of extinct North American megafauna in some part of the USA, I think it was in a book or perhaps an article by David Quammen but not 100 % sure.

This ecology or perhaps paleontology professor in a University over there brought up the idea of having lions and elephant brought to the USA and introduced to a protected area as proxies for pleistocene fauna.

The response that he received was pretty revealing about how the public would react to such a plan and his mailbox was innundated with letters (think this may have been in the pre-email days of the 80's) from people either threatening to shoot these animals with high calibre weaponry or hysterical about the risk that they posed to their children / grandchildren or livestock etc.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
The response that he received was pretty revealing about how the public would react to such a plan and his mailbox was innundated with letters (think this may have been in the pre-email days of the 80's) from people either threatening to shoot these animals with high calibre weaponry or hysterical about the risk that they posed to their children / grandchildren or livestock etc.
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That's the responses I would have thought, yes. Honestly I probably would have written an angry letter, too, though I wouldn't have threatened anything.
 
birdsandbats said:
That's the responses I would have thought, yes. Honestly I probably would have written an angry letter, too, though I wouldn't have threatened anything.
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I think these kinds of plans regarding African megafauna like elephants, lions, cheetah etc really just belong as interesting but ivory tower thought experiments for seminars rather than actual happenings in the real world.

That said, I do think there is a case to be made for realistic rewilding of certain species in Europe and North America.
 
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birdsandbats said:
I think it's a terrible idea to introduce horses and Cheetahs to the Americas. Just because there's some fossil species doesn't mean they are native species that would provide benefits to the ecosystem. Far from it, in fact!
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Regarding horses / equids I'm pretty sure that this has already happened with mustangs, apaloosa, burros and of course the famous Hearse zebras in California.

With cheetahs I agree, terrible idea indeed and especially when there are already puma and jaguar in the USA which both require more sustained efforts at conservation.
 
Onychorhynchus coronatus said:
Regarding horses / equids I'm pretty sure that this has already happened with mustangs, apaloosa, burros and of course the famous Hearse zebras in California.

With cheetahs I agree, terrible idea indeed and especially when there are already puma and jaguar in the USA which both require more sustained efforts at conservation.
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I know there are feral horses and donkeys in North America. I am strongly in favor of eradicating these invasive species. The zebras are fenced so they aren't really wild.
 
DesertRhino150 said:
I've seen several different times quoted - the two most common are 8,000 or 5,000 years ago.
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Such archeological knowledge is scarce and very unevenly gathered. So I would take it as an absolute minimum, and probably pond tortoises became extinct much later. Much larger lynx was long claimed not to live in Britain at all after the last Ice Age, until bones just few 100 years old were found.

It is nice to see such a project, and it is really something few dedicated teenagers can do. I am always depressed, how slow and bureaucratic are such projects, compared to how little objective work it takes to transport several turtles or frogs.
 
Jurek7 said:
Such archeological knowledge is scarce and very unevenly gathered. So I would take it as an absolute minimum, and probably pond tortoises became extinct much later. Much larger lynx was long claimed not to live in Britain at all after the last Ice Age, until bones just few 100 years old were found.

It is nice to see such a project, and it is really something few dedicated teenagers can do. I am always depressed, how slow and bureaucratic are such projects, compared to how little objective work it takes to transport several turtles or frogs.
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Are you sure about that lynx claim of a few hundred years ago ? o_O

It seems a little bit suspect / dodgy to me
 
There are several interesting projects in the Indian Ocean using Aldabra Tortoises to restore ecological function on islands that once had their own tortoises but they are now extinct.
 

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