Wildlife

[Dottie]

I am sure they would be very polite.

[Chimaera182]

I'm too lazy--and a bit tipsy--so I'm not going to read everything, but I'm quoting like the first few posts I saw as relevant to what I wanted to say.

[QUOTE=Fiona]Today they have reintroduced beavers into this country. There have already been reintroductions of some birds of prey which were extinct in the UK. Some people are arguing for the reintroduction of the wolf in Scotland. I haven't heard anyone pushing the case for the bear but it's probably a matter of time.

Do people think this is sentimental or are there good environmental reasons for it?[/QUOTE]
I think it's partly sentimental, but as Chanak goes into, there are environmental reasons. The need for things like natural predators is necessary in the scope of nature (if I start using big or unusual words out of context, I've been drinking a lil bit ). Anyway, if you reintroduce a species of herbivore, let's call them herbivore 9, you need to control their population. If you don't, herbivore 9 will eat all of vegetation 10, and then all the other animals that eat vegetation 10 will be out of food, and every species that eats V-10 will need to migrate to other areas to find V-10. But, if you control the number of herbivore 9 by introducing carnivore 7, C-7 will keep H-9's population from skyrocketing and wiping out V-10 in certain areas (okay, for those of you who are wondering why I'm using such weird names/numbers... Why is 6 afraid of 7? Because 7 8 [ate] 9).

[QUOTE=dj_venom]Well I think that reintroducing spieces to their natural habbitat is a good thing. Out here in Aus, we run the risk of the Koala being endangered, so they are making sanctuaries for them, and then when they become densely populated, they take them out of there and place them back in an abandoned enviroment. Funnily enough, one such place was Kangaroo Island, which now has so many Koalas they need to be culled... so much for Kangaroo island.

So even though they are dangerous animals, they have as much right there as we do. Also, this helps keep them from becoming extinct, because once that happens, you can never get them back... just like the Tasmanian Tiger.[/QUOTE]
I joined the International Student Volunteers last month; the host country I hope to visit is Australia. I'd get to work with the conservation efforts in Australia, and likely would deal with those places. Anyway, what is the natural predator of the koala? Maybe they should drop a few of those on Kangaroo Island. Or tranq some of the Koalas there (that's so sad an inhumane, but it's better than culling them) and move them to other locations.

[QUOTE=Chanak]The successful reintroduction of wolves into Yellowstone National Park here in the US is an encouraging example of such operations at their best. In this case, the numerous herds of elk had no real predator since the wolves receded many years ago due to ruthless hunting and extermination by humans; fortunately for us all, Canada served as a refuge for the grey wolves that once called the Yellowstone region their home. Cooperation between the US and Canada made the Yellowstone story a huge success.

As a footnote, projects like this are underway in other regions of the US. Again, we owe a great debt to Canada. If it weren't for the refuge their lands offered the grey wolf as they retreated from the aggression of hunters and ranchers in the US, there might not be any of these beautiful animals left on North America to reintroduce into their former territory. As of 5 years ago, grey wolves have been spotted as far south as Tennessee, where they haven't been seen in over 70 years.

The United States and Canada have considerable tracts of territory that are sparsely inhabited by humans. The same applies to Australia. This is an ideal setting for the reintroduction of predator species that were driven out previously. Overall, I support the reintroduction of predator species to their former ranges when success is favored by a lack of urban development and the presence of prey animals.

Truth be told, most predators will avoid humans when one catches wind of our scent. By nature of their profession, predators have evolved large brains to boost their chances of survival and over time have learned that humans = death. Wolves are a prime example of this: packs are elusive in the wild and avoid contact with humans. It's a major victory when a team of researchers manages to locate a pack.

Not all efforts to reintroduce species are wise, in my estimation. If the enviroment doesn't favor their relative seclusion from the urban sprawl of humanity or the ire of ranchers and farmers (in the case of predators), then I would think it shouldn't be done.[/QUOTE]
I recall hearing about the plight of the grey wolves. I can kind of understand why people felt the need to kill the wolves (product of the times and all that), but it's almost on par with people in Europe killing cats during the years of the Black Death. But it is nice to know the grey wolves will have a semi-happy ending.

You're right about that last bit (I originally said "though" after "bit," but that implied I didn't agree with you earlier, so now I have to write this long narrative for no reason in particular ): it wouldn't make sense to reintroduce a species that couldn't cope with the environment. Especially like in Venom's example on Kangaroo Island; you reintroduce Koalas to an area, and they have no natural predators there, so all of a sudden, Koalas practically overrun the place. It reminds me of the Simpsons episode where Bart brings his bullfrog to Australia and it reproduces and, because it had no natural predators, the bullfrog ran amok and destroyed a good portion of Australia's ecosystem (and of course they showed a Koala clinging to the helicopter and implied it would be a threat to the US, but how much eucalyptus [sp?] do we have here?). You have to be careful about how you reintroduce a species to a place.