Friday, August 19, 2005
What? Huh?!
If a group of US researchers have their way, lions, cheetahs, elephants and camels could soon roam parts of North America, Nature magazine reports.This is a good idea?! Some of those animals are dangerous to humans and you want to set them loose in this country? And what about that whole "invasive species" concern. Sounds pretty invasive to me. And while there were Pleistocene relatives of these animals in North America, that was a long time ago with a very different climate. The modern cousins come from areas far, far more temperate than the American Midwest. Anyone that has traveled the Great Plains in the dead of winter (and I have) can tell you a lion from the savannahs of Africa is going to end up a statue -- they never heard of such cold.
The plan, which is called Pleistocene re-wilding, is intended to be a proactive approach to conservation.
Oh sure, it would break up what may otherwise be the single most boring highway landscape in the world along I-70 in Kansas or I-80 in Nebraska with the occasional lion or elephant, but is that really a reason to do something like this?
Sorry, this strikes me as just silly. Can you say "grant bait."
