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Pleistocene Rewilding: Restoring a Lost World in North America
Pleistocene rewilding aims to reclaim the natural world and restore it to how humans found it over 10,000 years ago. Is this a good idea?
Pleistocene rewilding is as intriguing as it is controversial. At its heart, it is an ecological movement with good intentions. In practice, it may be unrealistic and even dangerous.
Few people would argue that working to improve the environment is bad. This is particularly true when a habitat or species has been negatively impacted due to human activity. As conscientious stewards of the planet’s ecosystems, we should seek to right these wrongs where we can.
However, some say humans knocked the natural world of the Americas out of whack long, long ago. They say the plants, animals, and even the environment surrounding us today are missing something important, and it’s up to us to bring it back.
A Lost Prehistoric America
The Pleistocene epoch was the age of the megafauna. Huge mammoths moved in herds, much like their distant African elephant relatives of modern times. Massive predators such as the Arctodus Simus the short-faced bear and Smilodon, the saber-toothed cat, stalked equally enormous…
