What about Bigfoot?

If they decide to go with the "Rewilding the Great Plains", I hope they ask the residents first. They may have a few small problems with that.

Oz has 21 million persons in an area the size of the 48 contiguous United States, so such a plan might actually work there.



Cheetahs on the Great Plains? Not so much. Not only would the sheepherders object, but there aren't enough pronghorn to keep the cats fed, since we have no equivalent to the comparatively tiny Grant's and Thompson gazelles that wild cheetahs typically feed on.

I like the idea of elephants in Australia... It might be a way to safely repopulate them too. Least the Aussies would do a much better job at stopping poaching.

What if it's something we can transplant?

You know what she'll say...

StoneColdAtheist: Cheetahs on the Great Plains? Not so much. Not only would the sheepherders object, but there aren't enough pronghorn to keep the cats fed, since we have no equivalent to the comparatively tiny Grant's and Thompson gazelles that wild cheetahs typically feed on.

They could release a bunch of Kirk's dik-diks before releasing the Cheetahs. If they want to create Cheetah food on the cheap, they can just drop off a bunch of house cats from ASPCAs nationwide. I will donate my neighbor's yappy dog if it helps.

That article makes me want to cry. Anyone who brings up wild horses in the conversation about restoring NAmerican megafauna needs to be slapped. Ecological balance depends on population as well as species diversity, and guess what- American Buffalo (bison for you easterners) constituted the primary megafauna of the great plains in population and total biomass, until they were eradicated. Let's start there, and then get to horses. In the meantime, the horses that run wild in North America are so far removed from the undomesticated, un-selected species that used to exist that I imagine there's hardly a comparison. And whitebark pine isn't that difficult of an issue. Let the damn forest burn- burn out the intermediates for blister rust, allow nature to do its thing and we'll see a resurgence of the whitebark pine. I love how people like to do crazy things to fix problems before looking at the sane things.

Ha. I'd love to see a Cheetah survive one winter on the Northern Great Plains. Pipe dreams. However, I have had fantasies about turning a pet cheetah out on a pack of coyotes- seems like the easy way to hunt. It'd be a hell of a thing to see. . .

jm105: What if it's something we can transplant?

You know what she'll say...

its ok.. since its the wrong planet anyways

;>)

I heard the Komodo Dragons actually protested being sent to Australia. There's already too many dangerous animals there for them.

Wouldn't adopting endangered species as food animals actually make a lot of sense in keeping them from going extinct? Sure, we may have to wait a few years for the elephants to arrive on our plates after the farms are first set up, but once they're isolated in a few safe farms, they can be monitored, protected from poachers, and allowed to fark for their species' survival while we eat some of the eventual surplus. Just to kill two birds with one stone, if you order in an endangered language and continue to speak in that language through your meal, you get half off the bill!

Just my modest proposal.