Posted on 08/18/2005 5:52:59 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Lions stalking deer in the stubble of a Nebraska cornfield. Elephants trumpeting across Colorado’s high plains. Cheetah slouching through the West Texas scrub.
Prominent ecologists are floating an audacious plan that sounds like a “Jumanji” sequel — transplant African wildlife to the Great Plains of North America.
Their radical proposal is greeted with gasps and groans from other scientists and conservationists who recall previous efforts to relocate foreign species halfway around the world, often with disastrous results.
The authors contend it could help save Africa’s poster species from extinction, where protection is spotty and habitat is vanishing.
“We aren’t backing a truck up to some dump site in the dark and turning lose a bunch of elephants,” said Cornell University ecologist Harry W. Greene, one of the plan’s authors.
While most modern African species never lived on the American prairie, the scientists think today’s animals could duplicate the natural roles played by their departed, even larger cousins — mastodons, camels and saber-toothed cats — that roamed for more than 1 million years alongside antelope and bison.
But the scientists’ plan, which appears in today’s issue of the journal Nature, is triggering thunderclaps of criticism, with discouraging words such as “stupid” and “defeatist” raining down.
Critics point to Australia, which was overrun by rabbits and poisonous cane toads after misguided species relocations.
Some conservationists said the plan would further damage the prospects of African species on their native turf, as well as that continent’s hopes for sustainable economic development.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestate.com ...
LOL what pot are they smoking? Now drivers will have to look out for springboks too.
My question is would they survive the North American winter?
Sure. By eating our pets and livestock.
I hunt in Nebraska. Some misguided people have already tried to introduce wolves, and there are cougars already.
Farmers have a simple solution to this. Shoot, Shovel, Shut up. Just make sure you find the radio tag before you shovel.
Their plan bumps into the UN prohibition on introduction of non-indigenous species..
Maybe if the Ithacans worked to educate the Africans and of course, Robert Mugabe, that poster child for the eradication of all animal life and humans from Zimbabwe, in fact send all Ithacans there, they could save the predators.
Would someone be so kind as to remind the idiots at Cornell that Lions eat meat, lots of meat, they consider humans an absolute delicacy and put them at the top of their menu.
Must be a typo in your title....obviously you meant Corney not Cornell...
I wonder if a 45-70 would put a pachyderm in the freezer, and the kids' freezers, and aunts' and uncles', and ....
The idiots at Cornell are, and I am not making this up, already giddy at the fact that Coyotes are starting to make their way into the City of Evil.
Wait until their pets start getting snacked upon.
lol
This is the most willfully stupid idea I've heard in many a day.
Don't forget to drive very slowly to the nearest interstate highway gas station and put the tag on the first vehicle with a leftover Kerry bumpersticker....
In my mind right now I'm imagining a group of lions roaming the prairie in North or South Dakota sometime in January when the wind howls down straight from northern Canada with nothing to stop it and snow falls horizontally.
My advice? Have some of those nice eastern ecologist folks come and spend some actual time on the Great Plains and they might discover why every animal that's native to the area is either covered with thick hair or built low to the ground.
Sometimes educated people can be SOOOOOOOOOO dumb!
Or overnight the tags to the Ecology Dept at Cornell U.
Not a bad idea.
I do know of one guy that shot a cougar and put it in his freezer to stuff. Got a visit from game and parks a few weeks later.
My father has seen cougar tracks in his farm in eastern Nebraska. His plan is to shoot it and call the game warden over to haul it away as the last time one was around it went after some hogs.
Pets nothin'. Coyotes are extremely aggressive in areas where they feel no fear (I doubt most Ithacan's have a .223 propped against the kitchen door). It's only a matter of time before they take a child.
Young boys could be hired to be brush beaters
Local rental agencies doing a booming business in Land Rover rentals
Taxidermy shops opening across the mid-west
Locals could sport native dress and preform native dances for the tourists
The list is unlimited
This would open a whole world to people who can not afford to visit the African savanah.
What? We can't hunt the lions? Never mind.
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