2006
DOI: 10.2307/3873461
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Pleistocene Rewilding: An Optimistic Agenda for Twenty-First Century Conservation

Abstract: 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 localit… Show more

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Cited by 163 publications
(180 citation statements)
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“…Moreover, we would expect these cascades to be most profound in areas of intrinsically low primary productivity, such as at the drier ends of rainfall gradients. Finally, we suggest that ungulateinitiated cascades were important in the history and evolution of ecosystems that today are bereft of large herbivores and that, although many of these cascades went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene along with the large herbivores that caused them, the legacies of the cascades may well remain (36,37). With densities approaching 1,000 per ha in places, lizards are the most abundant group of vertebrates in this habitat.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 92%
“…Moreover, we would expect these cascades to be most profound in areas of intrinsically low primary productivity, such as at the drier ends of rainfall gradients. Finally, we suggest that ungulateinitiated cascades were important in the history and evolution of ecosystems that today are bereft of large herbivores and that, although many of these cascades went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene along with the large herbivores that caused them, the legacies of the cascades may well remain (36,37). With densities approaching 1,000 per ha in places, lizards are the most abundant group of vertebrates in this habitat.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 92%
“…For instance, Target 2 of the EU 2020 biodiversity strategy promotes the restoration and the use of green infrastructures (i.e interconnected network of ecosystems, such as wetlands and woodlands) with the goal of restoring 15 % of degraded ecosystems, through incentives based on EU funding and Public Private Partnerships (European Commission 2011a). In this context, the restoration of nature through rewilding can be seen as a solution to address the on-going agricultural land abandonment while developing a new rural economy offering multiple social and environmental benefits (Brown et al 2011;Bryden et al 2010;Donlan et al 2006;Gantolier et al 2010;Hein 2011;McMorran et al 2006).…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…For example the reintroduction of wolves in the Yellowstone National Park has attracted additional tourists, generating economic and social benefits estimated at US$ 6-9 million per year (Donlan et al 2006). The reintroduction of ungulates and large carnivores in the Majella and the Retezat National Park in Italy and Romania, respectively, has also contributed to the local economy (Kun and van der Donk 2006).…”
Section: Cultural Benefitsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, the effects of non-native species are not always negative. For example, ecosystems that suffered high (humanbased) disturbance in the past, may benefit from the arrival of newcomers that fill vacant ecological niches (Donlan et al 2006, Griffiths et al 2010. Moreover, native species may profit from a new partner in trophical or non-trophical species interactions.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%