Camels and Cheetahs and Elephants, Oh My!

[stoutfellow]

This sounds intriguing. Also daft.

But definitely intriguing.

Oh give me a home
where the elephants roam
where the camels and cheetahs do play...

Comments

[hornedhopper.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link! I agree, daft. I would love to see it, but first we'd have to put all the *people* who keep coming here to live in very small compounds to keep enough land available for these megapets to range in. See my other comments below.

"By introducing living counterparts to the extinct animals, the researchers say, these voids could be filled. So, by introducing free-ranging African cheetahs to the Southwest, strong interactions with pronghorns could be restored, while providing cheetahs with a new habitat."

"Other living species that could "stand in" for Pleistocene-era animals in North America include feral horses (Equus caballus), wild asses (E. asinus), Bactrian camels (Camelus bactrianus), Asian (Elephas maximus) and African (Loxodonta africana) elephants and lions (Panthera leo)."

While there is nothing I would love better than seeing sweeping herds of camels darting about (and spitting at me (g)), I remember that it was tried once, maybe in the late 1800s (?), in the areas around Yuma where the sand dunes are so prevalent. When they were no longer needed, IIRC, they were turned loose but never really could establish a growing population. [Or I could be making this up (g)]

I wonder what plans they would have for adding cheetahs to "the Southwest" which already has bobcats and mountain lions, also pretty good predators. With our drought going on, some of them have started showing up in the fringes of development, looking for that tasty cat snack.

Last, it seems to me that we are having enough trouble keeping our wild mustang herds out here from being rounded up and sold for dog food. Where exactly did they plan to let these feral horses range? It takes a *lot* of land for horse herds to be successful, unless they plan to distribute feed and water regularly. If the plan ends up successful, though, I'd sure like to offer my neighborhood for the camels...