Introducing wildlife in the US

[dukebound85]

Should we introduce wildlife into the US? As in lions and cheetahs and what not?

It is well know that these animals are threatened in Africa and relocating could help their chances of survival...a modern Jurassic Park if you will

Before one says "ooh that's crazy as you will be messing up the ecosystem" that may be but remember that there used to be North American Lions and North Amercian cheetahs that lives on our plains in the past. but yea, it would change up the ecosystem and probably piss of more farmers who now just worry about coyotes and occasional wolves

I thought it was an interesting idea, just to ponder at the least

Some cool links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Lion
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_cheetah

 

[LethalWolfe]

I think the ecosystem has changed enough in the past 11,000 years that introducing distant relatives of the American Lion and American Cheetah into the wild in the US would not be that good of an idea. A game preserve sure, but not into the wild.


Lethal

 

[mkrishnan]

I think the ecosystem has changed enough in the past 11,000 years that introducing distant relatives of the American Lion and American Cheetah into the wild in the US would not be that good of an idea.

Isn't the timescale for the divergence of the African and American cats a bit longer than 11,000 years? I think considering ways to increase stability of the ecosystem in the US without introducing new species or requiring lots of human intervention would be good... for instance the game ecosystem in much of North America is disturbed by the fact that the natural predators of deer have become so few. But yes, I too think letting African animals loose in North America is probably not wise...