Bringing back dangerous animals

[AK Granola]

I would think this was an Onion article, but apparently not! I don’t think I’m excited about possibly having woolly mammoths roaming where I backpack. You? I have mixed feelings on other reintroductions like wolves or bears to areas where they once roamed. Do we have enough wild habitat for these creatures with an ever-growing human population? I have no idea how much territory a mammoth would need, but I’m betting it’s more than is available. Would you be safer in a tent or cowboy camping, if a herd of rampaging mammoths came through?! It’s a fun thought experiment, and I’m hoping it remains so.

[Terran Terran]

We’re only guests.

[Larry Swearingen]

So how big would a can of Wooly Mammoth Spray be ?

30-40 liters ?

Larry S

[Dan]

I can see how this would get the company a lot of PR, but I’m not clear on the overall value proposition in the context of a for-profit corporation. My guess is that the “bringing back extinct species” angle is a way to generate hype, and they are using the infusion of money they get to develop multi-use biotechnology advances. I will ask around, some of my colleagues probably know what’s going on.

[d k]

When I initially heard about this, it was in the context of bringing back the tundra ecosystem, and the effect it could have on slowing global warming.  That seemed to be the main impetus for doing this.

 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/can-bringing-back-mammoths-stop-climate-change-180969072/

[MJ H]

I think an ursack would be more effective at keeping mammoth from food than any kind of canister.  Anyway with hard walls would get crushed by the sheer weight.

[David Thomas]

Our daughter was 8 when this National Geographic came out,

she already knew about the pygmy mammoths on Wrangell Island until 4000 years ago, and thought it would make a great pet.  She said, “Uncle Morgan should bring back pygmy mammoths.”  When we explained that Uncle Morgan isn’t that kind of scientist (he works in quantum entanglement), she said, “Then Uncle Morgan should ask his scientist friends to do it.”

If well managed like Denali NP and the humans behave, there’s really not any interaction good or bad between people and wildlife.  I think it would be cool to reintroduce Pleistocene megafauna to Beringia again.  We (humans crossing over from Asia) killed them off, and I like the effects of reintroducing other wildlife that humans have exterminated locally (musk ox in Alaska, wolves in Yellowstone, condors to the Grand Canyon) – I’ve seen each of those and it added a lot to the trip.

[David D]

I’ll just say what we’re all thinking.

But will it wick?

[jscott]

I think Siberia  would  be a good place for them to roam. Also, the Kremlin.

[Monte Masterson]

Saber Tooth Tigers would be interesting though.

All kidding aside I’d very much like to see the Thylacine (Tasmanian Tiger) brought back into existence and there are efforts underway to do just that. Sightings are still reported but no hard evidence…kind of like Bigfoot.

 

 

[David Thomas]

Ivory-billed Woodpeckers would be another iconic animal we exterminated within living memory (of fairly old people).  But if there’s not the old-growth cypress trees with thick bark and large tasty grubs that were their niche, could a wild population be sustained?

Bald eagles rebounded when we stopped shooting/poisoning them and eliminated DDT.  Condors required lead-free bullets and less poisoning of other animals.  Musk ox in Alaska are now fine with regulated sport hunting – it was unlimited market hunting circa 1900 that wiped them out.  I’d put mammoths in that realm – slow to grow and reproduce, but without natural enemies, I suspect they’d do fine if left along.

[Luke Schmidt]

I always thought the original Jurassic Park was great, the sequels ranged from “meh” to “how did I waste 2 hours on that.” I always thought the next logical step for that franchise would have been “Ice Age Park” another island off Siberia/Alaska with clone mammoths, sabor tooths and so on.

Not sure it would work. I talked to a wildlife biologist about grizzly bears in the Selway Bitterroot. His opinion was that the area wasn’t really great bear habitat once the Salmon runs ended with dams. Some populations have other problems besides over hunting in other words.

But it’s a fun thought experiment. I had a middle school student designing an imaginary island between Japan and Alaska. He was speculating about the climate and what a culture mixing Japanese culture and western American culture would look like (Samaria swords, six shooters and good manners if I recall).

 

[David D]

>He was speculating about the climate and what a culture mixing Japanese culture and western American culture would look like

I work out of the Dallas office for a large Japanese company.  The mix is very cool and the synergy is high.  Well mannered but with integrity

[Thom]

I’ll hold off ordering a Woolly mammoth bell this season but you never know !

thom

[jscott]

nm.

[HkNewman]

Besides the Jurassic Park ish thought bubbles about regrowing and reintroducing extinct species, just growing home range for extirpated (usually hunting pressure) yet extant species is controversial.  Grizzly and wolf reintroduction raise the hackles of ranchers, and then there’s debate on the reality of some proposals.  Bringing jaguars into the Gila was just shot down .. US wildlife managers pointed out there’s not enough jaguars left in Mexico to transport a viable colony.  Let alone were jaguars roaming what became New Mexico in the first place?

Then there’s climate.  One possibility for the desert southwest is it gets more humid.  So would it be natural that jaguars migrate?  One of the dominant shrubs of the southwest was actually introduced from Central America via bird droppings and we do not call it invasive. What if they expanded on their own in response to changing climate?

Reintroducing jaguars and even T. rex may help American return to more cardio training however…

[Author]

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