<
https://theconversation.com/rewilding-conservationists-want-to-let-elephants-loose-in-europe-heres-what-could-happen-168212>
"Imagine driving through a lush, green landscape in France or Germany and
spotting a herd of elephants roaming freely. As absurd as that might seem, it
was only 10,000 years ago that creatures the size of elephants populated
continents like Europe. That’s a blip in evolutionary terms.
In the last 10,000 to 60,000 years, humans have almost single-handedly
eliminated around 80% of the world’s herbivore species that weigh over a tonne
– known as “megaherbivores”. The last living mammoth, for instance, was
wandering around Wrangel Island off the coast of Siberia as recently as 3,700
years ago.
This massive loss of megaherbivores in such a relatively short period has had
effects on vegetation that we can still see today, like promoting different
types and sizes of plants. By eating trees, shrubs, grasses and herbs – like
elephants and giraffes in Africa – these giants play a crucial role in
maintaining a diverse and healthy landscape, with a balance between woodlands
and grasslands.
For instance, elephants knock over trees, giving more space for grasses to grow
and helping savannah ecosystems to flourish. They are also critical for
dispersing seeds across landscapes and helping to recycle nutrients in the
soil.
To restore balance to ecosystems damaged by factors including the loss of
larger creatures, some have proposed bringing back lost species – which could
include megaherbivores. This is already being promoted in Africa by
organisations such as
Space for Giants and
African Parks. The problem is
that we know very little about how reintroducing these giants could affect
smaller species, some of which are facing extinction themselves.
In a study published in the
Journal of Animal Ecology, we shed light on the
consequences of reintroducing such species into ecosystems that have lost them,
by looking at how they affect life in a Kenyan savannah."
Share and enjoy,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
