Slashdot Mirror
Reintroduce Megafauna to North America?
sneakers563 writes "A team of scientists is proposing reintroducing large mammals such as elephants, lions, cheetahs and wild horses to North America to replace populations lost 13,000 years ago. The scientists say that parks could be set up as breeding sanctuaries for species of large wild animals under threat in Africa and Asia, and that such ecological history parks could be major tourist attractions. 'Africa and parts of Asia are now the only places where megafauna are relatively intact, and the loss of many of these species within this century seems likely,' the team said."
Sounds like a zoo to me...
parks could be set up as breeding sanctuaries
vs
It's coming right for us! Quick Ned, shoot it
Has nobody seen Jurassic Park?!
CC Licensed Serialized Story and Podcast: Ingenioustries
My vote is for Crawford, Texas.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/08/17/wild.am erica.ap/index.html
The AP story ends with this memorable quote:
Donlan concedes that lions would be a tough sell to Americans.
"Lions eat people," he said. "There has to be a pretty serious attitude shift on how you view predators."
"Even for Slashdot, that was a very obscure reference!" - Anonymous Coward
Well I don't know about the lions, but you could ride an elephant to work. Just add some cup-holders and you have a nice SUE (Sport Utility Elephant).
I would say Los Angeles or Washington D.C.
Both are very far from any known civilisation.
If what you are reading sounds funny, or sarcastic, lame, or stupid
it is because it is supposed to be. just laugh
How many human deaths will occur due to maulings once this is implemented.
Not nearly enough to justify the inevitable media outrage, but hopefully enough to severely reduce the number of stupid people in the country.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I think it should be fine as long as they don't bring in any gigafauna.
;)
Am I the only person here who's never heard of "megafauna" before, and thinks it's a funny word?
Especially considering how well they are managing the nature wildlife such as deer in my area (NJ). I can hardly wait until I have hordes of Elephants eating my garden.
The difference between Canada and the USA is that in Canada healthcare is a right and gun ownership is a privilege.
Funny how you failed to point out the reason:
As is often the case, the problem is simple -- though by no means necessarily easy to solve: control the pigs. What's really "funny" is that as the supposedly most intelligent species on the planet, humans actually create a problem (indirectly or not) then fail to address it. Let's hope that they can control pigs.
Sorry but I got to say it: the Tanzanians have made their beds, now they have to lion them.
"Where's my other sock?" - A. Einstein
They're bred for their skills in magic, you know.
Welcome to the United States of America, pop. 1.3 Million smart people.
Is this the same crew who was pushing for reanimation of that wooly mammoth a while back?
If these animals died out 13,000 years ago, doesn't the secular world view this as a mistake on the part of natural selection? Are we really going to second-guess that?
'Cause if we are, I'm gonna lobby for bigger guns and trample-insurance.
Ya know, there needs to be just one "idiot" packaged with all these overeducated intellectuals to put the brakes on now and then. Remember GM corn- how the scientists thought 200 yards was far enough away from natural corn to be safe....while forgetting that the typical native honeybee has a cruising range of over five miles?
Ya never see these people trying to reanimate the sabre-tooth tiger....wouldn't that be earnest, thoughtful re-instatement of missing species? Hey! Let's make a dragon!....
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
but hopefully enough to severely reduce the number of stupid people in the country.
So basically you're planning on turning the Bible Belt into a wild animal sanctuary?
I'm down with that! 8)=
Jurassic Park involves dinosaurs. This involves moving modern mammals, no doubt including large numbers of apes, to the U.S. in an era when Bush has decided to restart nuclear weapons research and countries like Iran would rather put up with the sanctions than be denied the one sure thing that stops the U.S. deciding you're evil and invading.
How could apes and nuclear war be bad? There's plenty of planet for everyone.
Mrs. Sheehan is from California, not New England.
"Just like rabbits in Australia -- but bigger! And carnivorous!"
We have such a place. We call it "Canada".
Yaz.
Well, I got jumped by a cougar today...
That actually happened to me a few weeks ago. It was my friends bachelor party, and I was just standing there with a Labatt's in my hand... and all of a sudden... BAM!
She made me breakfast in the morning.
Religion for nerds. Stuff that really matters
I'd like to petafauna myself, but they keep running away.
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act!" -- George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)
As you can see, they don't look anything alike.
A moot point. I bet they both taste like chicken...
HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
Maybe they should move some of these elephants to Palestine, since the Israelis have built a 2-foot thick - 15-foot high wall around the place already.
Hey, there are smart people here in the Bible Belt too!
(We're being held hostage -- help!)
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Wait for the greenhouse to get worse.