I’ve been incredibly busy the past couple weeks, but things are settling down now… so… it’s time to post.
A couple of cool articles from the BBC have caught my attention:
First was one on reintroducing “Mega Fauna” into the Great Plains of North America.
Updated
The scientists point out that right now, nearly all the big game, elephants, lions, cheetahs, antelope, camels, horses etc. are concentrated on the African continent. In effect, we’re relying on one continent to preserve some of the Earths most magnificient animals.
North America meanwhile has many similar regions that could support these sorts of animals… indeed, before humans arrived on the continent, there were native species including Mammoth, cheetah, and pronghorn.
By introducing the African varieties to North America we give them the opportunity to expand their habitat and grow their numbers… and we regain the top-of-the-foodchain species, both predatory and not, that we lost so many years ago.
Could a cheetah or a lion attack some unsuspecting American or Canadian? Sure… but so can Grizzlies, and Cougars, and even Wolves (though very very rarely)… given the proper education in safety and precautions there is no reason humans and big game can’t live together without harm… Big game could also be a major tourist attraction.
Really, when you think about it, there are very few reasons not to look into this, because if it is done well we would be restoring a little bit of the Ancient America that past away so long ago.
Update
As you might expect, African Conservation officials are sceptical at best, and down right defensive at worst.
Science note #2
And for the second article, the BBC has reported on a new airplane design that creates silent airplane when in flight.
Go check out the article… the picture is cool.. it’s a flying wing like the Stealth Bomber, nothing like any jetliner you’ve been on. You’d sit in “stadium-like” seating and after takeoff, you wouldn’t hear a thing.
Just a guess, but didn’t this continent have a much warmer climate when the early versions of the big game animals roamed here? And absolutely no humans here?
Actually, given that the prevailing theory for human migration into the Americas was over the Bering Straits… that happened during the last ice age, so since then the Earth has, obviously, warmed considerably so if anything its’ warmer now than it was back when big game animals were still here.
I guess I’m getting my “geological” era’s mixed up. I was thinking back further than the last 50000 years when according to tectonic theory, the continents were positioned in a dramatically different position but I’m really unschooled on this subject so I bow to your better informed observations. 🙂
heheh no worries… when it comes to geologic time there’s a span of billions of years in which to become confused. 😀
Luckily, us humans have only been around for a fraction of that… and organized cultures for even less than that (25,000 years?) but there’s still plenty of room for error.