Pleistocene Rewilding: An Optimistic Agenda for Twenty-First Century Conservation

Authors:
Donlan, C.J. et al.

Publication Date:
2006

Abstract/Summary:
Large vertebrates are strong interactors in food webs, yet they were lost from most ecosystems after the dispersal of modern humans from Africa and Eurasia. We call for restoration of missing ecological functions and evolutionary potential of lost North American megafauna using extant conspecifics and related taxa. We refer to this restoration as Pleistocene rewilding; it is conceived as carefully managed ecosystem manipulations whereby costs and benefits are objectively addressed on a case-by-case and locality-by-locality basis.

Resource Type:
Peer-reviewed Article

Source:
The American Naturalist

Link:
http://eebweb.arizona.edu/Courses/Ecol406R_506R/DonlanEA-2006_AmNat_PleistoceneRewild.pdf