Megafauna Motivation

Studies have shown the importance of large vertebrates in creating and maintaining the biological diversity that helps make ecosystems stable and productive. The goal envisioned here is not to preserve the status quo, it is to preserve biomes of great ecological diversity and complexity. The natural world of the Pleistocene, with its variety of megafauna, is an example of such ecological diversity.

The Pleistocene epoch lasted from 1,640,000 to about 10,000 years ago. It was marked by great fluctuations in temperature that caused the ice ages, with glacial periods followed by warmer interglacial periods. An immense variety of large mammals (megafauna) inhabited the earth during this period.

Pleistocene Extinction & Resurrection

Two hundred years in the future, the illustration could be a scene in a future wilderness in western North America. The crucial aspect of the painting is not the relationship of predator and prey, but the reestablishment of an ancient bond. For the death race between two of the fastest mammals on earth has not occurred for 10,000 years.

Justification for a Pleistocene resurrection in North America has been advanced by a number of scientists in Nature and an editorial and article in the Scientific American.

Paul Martin sets out the case for man's hand in the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna and advocates the reintroduction of these large animals in North America as part of a resurrection ecology. NOVA evaluated various possibilities for the megafauna extinction of 13,000 years ago, including a comet.

European Initiative

Europe, with so many close living relatives of its extinct megafauna, has been taking a leadership role in the actual reintroduction and protection of large animals.

Surprisingly, one of Europe's smaller countries, the Netherlands has taken the biggest step in Western Europe to create a living wilderness with a megafauna dominated ecology. This Oostvaardersplassen lies below sea level and its current 15,000 acres includes 3000 roaming wild horses, red deer and long-horned wild cattle.

The European Bison is part of a Europe-wide project to bring back this species once driven to virtual extinction. The Wildland Network in the United Kingdom aims to recreate wildlands and return exterminated species to Britain. There is a concerted effort to bring back large herbivores that once inhabited Europe. In Russia there is an ongoing effort to create an actual Pleistocene Park in Yakutia.

Candidate Species

Megafauna in these 'pleistocene' wildernesses will include (1) existing native species, (2) species extirpated in most of their original range (such as the Grizzly Bear in California), (3) analogue species (an animal that can stand in for an unavailable one, such as the North American Cheetah, in order to create an approximate restoration of an ecosystem) or (4) regenerated megafauna from DNA (eg; Woolly Mammoth). Cloning extinct species could be a real possibility in the near future.

Except for birds, megafauna is defined here as animals weighing five kilograms or more.

Benefits

Recreating a Pleistocene ecology will have a number of benefits. Some of those benefits are:

Preserve Endangered Species - Preserve large species barely surviving now in Africa, Europe and Asia in an extended and protected habitat where they might thrive and continue to evolve, not in a static zoo or wild animal park environment.

Recreate Vibrant Ecologies - with the loss of the greater part of Pleistocene megafauna, many habitats of the Americas, Asia and Europe have become relatively lifeless at the scale most visible to people. The reappearance of megafauna will bring back a richness of animal and plant life that has disappeared in large parts of the world. Witness the positive impact on the Yellowstone region in North America associated with the return of the Grey Wolf.¹

Maintain Varied Habitats - Large animals have been one of natures tools to assure varied habitats that are not (a) as susceptible to disease and parasites, (b) overrun by a certain few animal species or (c) smothered by exotic plants whose natural control is missing.

Increase popular support - people can relate to the picture of free ranging large mammals, witness its success on a smaller scale in the national parks of Africa or even San Diego's Wild Animal Park. Such support is crucial to the saving of threatened species.

Exotic Dangers

There are ugly stories of man bringing exotic creatures to new lands resulting in the local ecology being obliterated by the invaders. Witness rats, cats or goats on ocean islands or the rabbit scourge in Australia. Note the wiping out of the native birds on Guam by the Brown Tree Snake. Most of these exotic invaders were relatively small in size, breed up to large numbers very quickly and natural predators (such as the fox for the rabbit in Australia) may create new unintended consequences on the native fauna. The adverse impacts on the native ecology, especially in situations like Australia where the native mammal ecology (based on marsupials) is ill equiped to compete with the invaders, can be devastating.

An obvious question is presented by the pleistocene wilderness approach. How does the current proposal, to introduce megafauna missing from the local ecology for sometimes 10,000 years or more, avoid such dangers? One difference is that the current proposal is for the introduction of megafauna, not the smaller, more prolific rats, rabbits, cats, foxes, snakes and similar animals that have devastated unique ecological habitats. Additionally, as the new megafauna acclimates and becomes established with sufficient numbers in its new home, the proposal is to also introduce their predators to keep all species in balance with the ecology.

As proposed in an article in Nature, Well-designed, hypothesis-driven experiments will be needed to assess the impacts of potential introductions before releases take place. Large tracts of private land probably hold the best immediate potential for such studies, with the fossil record and research providing guideposts and safeguards. For example, 77,000 large mammals (most of them Asian and African ungulates, but also cheetahs, camels and kangaroos) roam free on Texas ranches, although their significance for conservation remains largely unevaluated.