REWILDING AMERICA: Recreating the American Serengeti

[@sarban1653]

Don't forget the jaguar. They used to live up to the Canadian border.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@sarban1653thanks for the info! By any chance do you have a link to something for that? I tried to see the previous range of the jaguar but I could only find that they reached the more Southern states 😊

[@sarban1653]

@@Eco-Nerd Yeah, I have several links about it. But KZbin automatically deletes any comments that contain links. If you have an email that I can send it to, I'd be glad to.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@sarban1653 hey Sarban, I emailed you back just there 😊

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

But, he didn't forget the jaguar at all. The jaguar is mentioned at 2:27.

[@owli-wankenobi3727]

Jaguars are actually slowly returning to the U.S. They have been seen in the sky island mountains of southern Arizona, with increasing frequency, if I'm not mistaken.

[@jonathanroberts-bj7yl]

I think Eurasia needs more help.

[@Eco-Nerd]

More help with rewilding? 🤔

[@jonathanroberts-bj7yl]

@@Eco-Nerd yes, the wildlife.

[@Eco-Nerd]

Yeah definitely! There could be such amazing wilderness areas in Europe and Asia! I think it has been improving over the last 10 years and hopefully it keeps on improving 🤞

[@abduking.]

@@jonathanroberts-bj7yl america lost more of its wildlife than eurasia

[@grendel8342]

Yea north America has lost far more of its megafauna than all of Eurasia. The two largest native herbivores are bison and moose, we are literally missing several trophic levels above them.

[@FernandoComicsOfficial]

What a beautiful dream. I hope to see the start one day.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@FernandoComicsOfficial 🙏 🙏

[@NoahHawkins-rp6un]

​@Eco-Nerd questions 1. Are you catholic 2. How much faster do you think the wilds would recover faster if the churches participated in the restoration 3. Do you think regenerative agriculture is eco friendly 4. A video on the pros and cons hunting has on conservation 5. Potatoes ( im mostly irish Norwegian mix with good part Cuban and had family from the southeast a Midwest and live the US) 6. Irish history video 7. I have a really small channel called The Great Out Doors and wondering if you want to possibly work together

[@abduking.]

i think reintroducing big cats is very important especially the lion. Wolfs and bears cannot fill the role lions once filled in hunting larger prey like bisons and elks consistently. Bears are too slow sure they have the power but 99% of the time they'll just get outpaced. Wolfs are too small and even in packs they cant hunt bison consistently they have to settle for smaller prey. Big cats hunt these prey items on the regular and thats why lions are important. When the Europeans came into the Americas bisons in particular had such an over bloated population probably cuz they barely had any predators imagine how much that changed the ecosystem.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@abduking. yep for sure, of course bears, wolves and occasionally mountain lions prey on bison but they're definitely underequipped compared to lions for taking down the largest animals!

[@GustavSvard]

Good point! Plus, of course, that the elephant, ground sloths, camelids, & horses were all gone too, so the neighbouring niches of the bison were pretty empty which also made them ever more plentiful.

[@ewanz.gregory9175]

I couldn't agree more. Moreover, we cannot leave out what would happen to the ecosystem of the great plains if modern cheetahs were to introduced as a proxy for the American cheetahs; which bty were very close relatives to modern acinonyx.

[@HagalSkrymir999]

The bison numbers weren't overbloated at all. And they had a natural predator. The Native American tribes filled the role.

[@abduking.]

@@HagalSkrymir999 very true but humans are not as consistent hunters as other animals. Humans can kill a lot of bisons in one go but they tend to get there foods from many different sources. And remember they didnt have horses back then so hunting bison on foot was the only option which is always risky.

[@obambagaming1467]

Humans actually replaced giant ground sloths when it comes to avocados

[@jameswilliams2075]

Not so much for the Joshua tree

[@UnwantedGhost1-anz25]

Africa is the only continent on Earth that isn't biologically impoverished. In terms of Megafaunas. Why?

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@UnwantedGhost1-anz25 The main theory is that that's where humans evolved and so the megafauna evolved alongside humans and adapted to human hunting techniques, knowing when to run, knowing when to fight etc.

[@royhay5741]

Asian megafauna also survived man because they're the same or similar to sub-Saharan African megafauna, which coevolved with man. However, agriculture hit Asia long before sub-Saharan Africa, so Asian megafauna is greatly diminished today and on the way out.

[@samanthaspino]

I'm surprised you didn't mention the current strides being made to clone Woolly mammoths in this video. Rewilding these mammoth clones could be quite beneficial

[@charlesbranscomb8493]

Yall stupid

[@eliletts8149]

This video is a quick summary of what the idea of Pleistocene rewilding in the United States of America entails. Very solid!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@eliletts8149 Thank you!

[@eliletts8149]

@@Eco-Nerd you are very welcome!

[@aaaydenwetsell]

5:36 plus, the wild bactrian camel is endangered, so if we get them, we can save the species. 5:42, or better yet, we introduce the also endangered prezwalskie's horse instead.

[@Eco-Nerd]

Totally agree. A lot could be done to conserve certain species. Lions, cheetahs and all three elephant species are classed as vulnerable or worse!

[@aaaydenwetsell]

@@Eco-Nerd or worse? do you mean like endangered?

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@aaaydenwetsell Yep, some are classed as vulnerable, others endangered. African Forest Elephants are classed as critically endangered!

[@ricardoxavier827]

@@Eco-Nerd Some months ago, one african president claim to germany to get 20.000 elephants that he wants to open hunting over them because his country has too much elephants, and conservation efforts must be shared to allow his country to develop his territory. Hard logistics, but USA has the militar plains to do such thing. 20.000 elephants that they want to k1ll if no one comes to recue them.

[@ricardoxavier827]

@@Eco-Nerd "Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi told German media this would only impoverish people in his country. He said elephant numbers had exploded as a result of conservation efforts, and hunting helped keep them in check.03/04/2024"

[@purplehaze2358]

Predation by wolves is an actual conservation issue for camels already, though.

[@joaocarlosferro]

musk ox and the forest version are missing in this video.

[@dariusbrock2351]

I know reintroducing some animals like elephants and camels is something likely not to happen but it does make a nice fantasy. Great video and new sub!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@dariusbrock2351 Yeah, it's hard to imagine in it the modern world but who knows! Thank you, I really appreciate it 😎

[@gabrielg.2401]

You mentioned that the largest of our sloths was around 1.5 tons. In fact, the genus Eremotherium could grow to be much larger, we're talking elephant size, with adults averaging out at about 3 to 4 tons and having a bipedal stance of at least 12 ft. Truly some of the most impressive animals to ever walk this earth.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@gabrielg.2401 You're right I totally missed them! I thought they went extinct at an earlier that date and not at the time I was speaking about in the video.

[@gabrielg.2401]

@@Eco-Nerd No worries. Just confirmed it and it's Eremotheirum laurillardi that I'm referring to which I read disappeared 10 to 14 thousand years ago in North America.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@gabrielg.2401 Cool! Thanks for letting me know!

[@jensbuekens3402]

I just watch these for your accent. It makes me fall asleep so good.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@jensbuekens3402 Thank you 🤣

[@thehoundofthegamingvilles2012]

"That's biger than any living bison" *meanwhile gaurs*

[@arkprice79]

Having cheetahs and lions being reintroduced to the grasslands of North America would be amazing in restoring the environment. Cheetahs could probably do quite well thanks to them being diurnal, unlike the puma and wolf, as well as the fact bears not being too frequent in warm grassland environments

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@arkprice79 it would be great to see!!

[@Giwa-e3p]

Reintroduce? Don't you mean "introduced"

[@arkprice79]

@@Giwa-e3p Cheetahs and Lions once roamed North America's Grasslands

[@Giwa-e3p]

@@arkprice79 those are different species, so it's definitely not "reintroduction" Africa lions are different from America lions, introducing them into America wild would be "introducing" not "reintroducing" cos they'd never been there before

[@Dr.Ian-Plect]

@@arkprice79 "Cheetahs and Lions once roamed North America's Grasslands" - wrong, names matter; cheetah and lion specifically refer to Acinonyx jubatus and Panthera leo respectively. It was the 'American cheetah' and 'American lion' that once roamed N. America. These are not the former 2 species.

[@SonLucasX]

I simply love this theme. For me, the only way to preserve large but also small animals and plants is to return wild areas in different countries, create new protected national parks and reintroduce extinct animals to these areas and introduce animals from other places to preserve these species and increases biodiversity. Unfortunately, this is very dangerous, because invasive species tend to cause a lot of damage and we still don't know very well the best way to make these introductions. Not to mention that before doing good, it could do greater harm, because it takes hundreds or thousands of years for an ecosystem to stabilize.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@SonLucasX yeah there are definitely huge risks to introducing non native species even if you think they're a suitable replacement for an animal that's been lost to that ecosystem! Humans are still learning how ecosystems work! It is working in Pleistocene Park though and with the Giant Tortoises in the Galapagos, so when the right research is done beforehand it can certainly work.

[@SonLucasX]

@@Eco-Nerd Yes, I hope these projects work out in the end. The world cannot lose any more of the biodiversity it has already lost because of our species!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@SonLucasX yep, we we use our intelligence to restore biodiversity, rather than destroy it!

[@renatochacin2219]

In episode 4 of Tales of The Walking Dead we were introduced to the Dead Sector, a sector created sometime before the outbreak and whose location is in the Wiregrass Region, it is home to native wildlife and also exotic fauna composed of animals. that escaped from zoos during the outbreak and although the Sector itself is partially invaded by Walkers, both native and exotic fauna managed to thrive in the environment due to the lack of human intervention, something that caught my attention is that two species of animals that became extinct in the State of Georgia are found in the Dead Sector and I am referring to the Flamingos and Wolves so it is good to see two species of animals return to their habitats from which they were before (Note: the species The Wolf that lived in the State of Georgia was the Red Wolf, but the species of Wolf seen in the Dead Sector is the Gray Wolf, probably originating from populations that escaped from zoos, thus taking the place of its smaller cousin.)

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@renatochacin2219 sounds cool!!

[@renatochacin2219]

​@@Eco-Nerd Well, since the episode takes place 10 years after the outbreak begins to spread throughout, I would say that as you say, it sounds great, but sometimes I wondered how the animals in the Dead Sector avoid the Walkers.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@renatochacin2219 Yeah I get you! I suppose the same way they avoid other predators

[@renatochacin2219]

@@Eco-Nerd Yes, but we are talking about Walkers, undead beings that devour any living being, whether human or animal, and it is worse if they walk in hordes.

[@hackman669]

Wouldn't it be best to introduce the Asian lion, camel and elephant to select regions in the west? Since most animals in N America are closely related to their counterparts in Russia and Northern Asia.😅

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@hackman669 yep it probably would! It would also be good to have Asiatic Lions and Bactrian Camels to have another place to live in the wild! African Elephants and Asian Elephants have quite a different ecology so both would have different benefits 😎

[@everythingisfine9988]

Was the American Lion actually related to lions? Or are they closer to Tiger's? 🐯🦁

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@everythingisfine9988 Yeah it's believed that their closest living relative is the lion! The Snow Leopard and Tiger would be the least closely related to the American Lion in the 'big cat' genus

[@denyoellamcy8251]

​@@everythingisfine9988No the American lion was not related to modern day lions.. It was more of a big jaguar than a lion

[@aquireeverything9382]

Elephants in the Everglades? Yes please

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@aquireeverything9382 😂 couldn't agree more!!

[@ramonbenitez1323]

We’re not far off, the closest thing to that is called white oak sanctuary, they recently took in a herd of elephants and although not wild it’s the closest thing we have at the moment

[@aquireeverything9382]

@@ramonbenitez1323 ah that’s farther north than I guessed, still awesome! Thanks for sharing this

[@robrice7246]

@@ramonbenitez1323 There's also an elephant refuge in Attapulgus, Georgia just north of the Florida border.

[@ramonbenitez1323]

@@robrice7246 they should use these sanctuaries and study the elephants impact on the surrounding flora, since they are in large areas

[@josephwyman3589]

I would like to see something on asia. Maybe even multiple (i.e. Russia, China, south asia, japan, korea)

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@josephwyman3589 Yep, Asia is on my list! It's a massive continent and the habitats are so diverse that it'll definitely have to be seperate videos! Thanks for the recommendation 😊

[@VicmundLim]

​@@Eco-Nerd Hope we get to see that video

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@VicmundLim I'll get there! I've got a long list of videos 😎

[@VicmundLim]

@@Eco-Nerd cool. Goodluck to you man

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@VicmundLim Thank you 😎

[@savagestrat]

I could see Wyoming or Colorado having a Serengeti, or maybe the dakotas or Montana. As for the south I would say Utah or Nevada

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@savagestrat Yeah Montana seems like the frontrunner for me because the American Prairie Reserve are Rewilding huge amounts of land there

[@chancegivens9390]

It sounds like a fantastic idea!!

[@royhay5741]

Wild longhorns, burros, razorbacks, and greater capybaras should be considered honorary natives, too.

[@curtherring7732]

I am very suspicious of deliberate reintroduction of non-native species to fill old niches, because their is always the risk of unforeseen consequences, and once the cat is out of the bag there is no going back. Other than that it is a very beautiful vision, as long as locals are allowed to maintain their way of life and not driven off of their land.

[@WillPower311]

Would be Great!

[@devleigh]

It’s thought the Giant Beaver wasn’t a keystone species like the beaver we have today.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@devleigh that's interesting! I must look in to it!

[@DarriusMichael]

Very cool

[@edwinmodu3178]

So much love ❤️

[@samhinnant4416]

Bruh we already have Bears in America. I don't want to have to worry about freaking lions when u go for a hike in nature! Lol

[@UltraPoseidon]

Good luck convincing ranchers to allow lions and cheetahs to move in next door. Lol. Elephants I think would actually do pretty well in the southwest, particularly the Scrubland. States might agree to it because it would be a boom in tourism and Farmers and ranchers could be placated by the bee fences that their counterparts in Africa have devised.

[@AlisterBlack452]

I hate the shell America is now in terms of beauty and nature!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@AlisterBlack452 it definitely lost a lot but it still has some beautiful wildlife! The largest predators in Ireland are red foxes and badgers, the largest animals are red deer which are about half the size of your elk so I'm very jealous of the wildlife you have in America

[@je-rc2cl]

Rewild is a term that makes no sense to those of us living the American west. The federal government is the largest land owner in the west by design, such that it just stayed wild. Extinctions arent realistically reversible. There are alot of animals here, of course not near cities but in the west cities are not predominant at all. It's nothing like Europe.

[@austinhughes1924]

I actually think this would be a great idea.

[@AAARTEMISSS644]

In africa all animals were weary of humans from elphants to hippos, rhinos and lions although when human's left africa the equivalent animals like the european lions and elephants couldn't adapt quick enough the pleistocene animals could of survived in small pockets but human's hunted the small pockets of animals left even india one of the last megafauna hotspots had animals on the brink of extiction but they prevailed i hope to see the american serengeti in my life time

[@purplehaze2358]

Y'know, I think the outro for this video quite succinctly, if accidentally, describes the _actual_ reason proxy rewilding has caught on as a concept. It's.. a cool idea. It's cool imagining animals that, right now, would never know each other exist interacting in some semblance of what once was. But a semblance it still is. And, if indeed it's attempted, extreme care should be taken. I feel as though brazenly proposing to introduce African animals lacks that care.

[@JurassicDaikaiju]

Personally, I think we should rewild as much of the world as possible & make our settlements more eco-friendly. Also, new studies show that dire 'wolves' were actually closer to wild dogs than to modern wolves. So, I guess 'dire hounds' is a more appropriate name.

[@jessejarmon2100]

Personally, while I'm all for recreating the American Serengeti, I also think that some niches should be left empty to allow new species to evolve into them.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@jessejarmon2100 Yeah that's definitely understandable! It takes millions of years for significant changes (like something getting to the size of an elephant or lion) so the thought process behind Pleistocene Rewilding is to undo the harm humans have done and try and replace the animals

[@jameswolf4894]

Wolves can barely exist in states that have reintroduced them and theres still argument for total extermination of them. They sure as hell aint gna be happy with the idea of adding Lions lol.

[@everythingisfine9988]

Dire wolves are related to hyenas. That's the latest Discovery that I heard at the La Brea tar pits in LA

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@everythingisfine9988 I think you might have misread something. It's thought that they had good bone crushing abilities, similar in that sense to hyenas but their closest living relatives are the members of the subtribe canina, wild dogs, wolves and jackals 😊

[@teyanuputorti7927]

Cant wait for more land to be rewild in the years to come and maybe I brought my kids to see it once I have them.

[@kevinmclaughlin9796]

You're off your rocker bud! We don't need any large predators added to what we already have to deal with here. This whole country is already developed into modern agriculture and urban sprawl. Very little "Wilderness" exists anywhere in the lower 48 besides a few national parks. The last thing we could possibly need is Elephants getting out on the interstate or Cheetahs roaming through neighborhoods.

[@GODZILLA2915]

Don’t forget we have winter here. They’ll never survive that.

[@KayentaRojo]

What on earth are you talking about?? Have you ever been to the western United States? There is ENDLESS amounts of uninhabited space out here. In Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and many other western states you can drive for hours and hours and not even see one single person. It’s still very wild out here unlike the east coast

[@curtherring7732]

Yeah mostly agree with this. Also cattle and other domesticated animals often do (or can) fill the niches that other herbivores used to fill. Converting pastureland, farmland, or residential property into wilderness raises the question where do the people living there go? What if they don't want to leave? What happens when megafauna conflict with human beings?

[@matthewgugs685]

I don’t think we need to bring elephants and lions. We should just focus on restoring native wildlife that roamed there before European expansion.

[@LICENFIREFEAR]

America is perfection

[@PsycheDelic-m7m]

Malaysia also need more help

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@PsycheDelic-m7m I will definitely be doing a South East Asian episode in the future! So Malaysia and the 4/5 other countries around there 😎

[@PsycheDelic-m7m]

there are fewer than 150 Malayan tigers left in the wild searching for Malayan tiger is like searching for dragon

[@Eco-Nerd]

@PsycheDelic-m7m Wow, yeah that's incredibly rare! A different subspecies, the Indochinese Tiger which would've been found across most of South East Asia has been oblitterated as well. Just around 220 remaining, Laos now has just two tigers and Vietnam around 5. The wildlife in SE Asia has taken a huge hit

[@PsycheDelic-m7m]

@@Eco-Nerd yup just a rainforest without the king

[@Eco-Nerd]

@PsycheDelic-m7m Good way of saying it

[@dawidm08277]

Love this i cant wait to more rewilding in the world and see how ewerything will be 🐺🐎🦬🦌🦓🐆🐅🦁🫏🫎🐪🐫🐘🦣🦥🦙🐊🐈

[@Eco-Nerd]

Me too Dawide!!! Hopefully it keeps growing! Thanks for watching 😎

[@videoarchive490]

You may the answer to this question better than I but why hasn't Australia made any efforts to introduce komodo dragons to its continent They have evidence that Megalania once lived there so why not try to fill the niche again?

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@videoarchive490 There are a couple of reasons for sure. Megalania was absolutely huge in comparison to Komodo Dragons and the reason it got so large was to take down the giant marsupials that lived in Australia at the same time like diprotodon, giant short faced kangaroo and palorchestes, sadly those animals are extinct so megalania's role isn't missed. Australia's largest native herbivores are kangaroos and emus which are preyed upon by dingoes and eagles so they're not really lacking a top predator. Also, there are so many risks with introducing an animal to a place with wildlife as unique as Australia. However Australia has a problem with invasive large prey animals that have no significant predators (wild boar, water buffalo, camels, horses, donkeys, goats, cattle) so an argument could be made for introducing a large predator but it would be very high risk! But, it would also be very, very cool to see Komodo Dragons introduced to Australia!!

[@videoarchive490]

@@Eco-Nerd I appreciate you bringing up the invasive prey point because I'd just watched a short doc on how feral camels were actually becoming a problem for Australia and that's what made me think about the Dragons and their ability to take down large animals I appreciate the insight and I look forward to more of your videos in the future!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@videoarchive490 thank for watching and it's a really interesting question! What was the camel video? I'd like to check it out

[@nojorooney]

⁠​⁠@@Eco-Nerdwhat’s really interesting about the invasive herbivores in Australian ecosystems is that it seems like dingoes are learning to hunt them wherever they overlap with the invasive ungulates, mostly wild boar, deer and goats but even the larger herbivores such as sambar deer and even camels and buffalo have been supposedly reported to be hunted by dingoes (although these are almost always younger individuals, usually calves) adding komodo dragons could very likely reinforce the impact on herbivores that dingoes have, but as you said it could be very risky.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@nojorooney yeah that's very cool! I've heard of dingoes preying on water buffalo calves but I never heard about the camel calves! Komodo dragon introduction would be really interesting. It'd be cool if they trialed it in a large enclosure to mitigate the risks and study the outcomes

[@HagdoBr]

Before lions and rhinos, we need Jaguar and Camelids in North America.

[@vortixq3043]

I'd love to see southern Europe or northern Africa ❤

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@vortixq3043 Thanks for the suggestions! I'll put them on my list 😎

[@CheatsythePimp2]

TBH, I would like to see what could be done for the American Southwest (Especially Arizona where I'm from) along with Australia!

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@CheatsythePimp2 I haven't looked much in to American South West specifically but there is incredible work being done in Australia! Huge tracts of land being set aside for nature and non-native species being fenced out. I hope to do a video on Australia in the future and I'll add American South West to my idea list as well!

[@CheatsythePimp2]

@@Eco-NerdAlso South America could be interesting, I feel like African forest elephants could fit right in.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@CheatsythePimp2 Yeah I'll definitely be doing an episode on South America in the future! Elephant introduction has actually been proposed for South America before. It does seem like it would work it'd be interesting if they tried a test area or something

[@abduking.]

domedary camels are the fist thing i though of for hotter areas like that.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@abduking. yeah that would be cool for sure!

[@Lythaera]

All horses and camelids are native to North America, even if they have been absent for several thousand years. Mustangs most definitely belong here.

[@mantaray2239]

I love your dream of restoring Pleistocene like diversity in North America. Not sure how it would be received by the political establishment.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@mantaray2239Thank you! Yep, that's definitely a hurdle 🤣

[@AJAXRAIDER]

Rewilding large areas of the US and Canada would be amazing, but Donlan suggesting bringing in species from other continents would be a disaster. I understand the idea, but you can't and you shouldn't introduce non-native species. This has occurred in the past and it has never worked out well.

[@vladline1882]

Barbary lion would fit the bill for lions

[@damianeduardolescano3542]

NO NO NO NO!!!! WTF! Don't do that!

[@ShonnMorris]

Why not?

[@SowerValler]

​@@ShonnMorrishe's refusing to answer. Probably because he can't come up with a valid argument

[@denyoellamcy8251]

​@@ShonnMorrisBecause African lions , cheetahs and elephants are not native to the American ecosystem.. Introducing a foreign species has never ended up well for the environment

[@denyoellamcy8251]

​@@SowerVallerThere'r non native species

[@GODZILLA2915]

With the Pleistocene Park in Russia, I completely understand its usefulness with or without mammoths, but in the Great Plains it’s not a good idea. - African animals are not adapted to the cold climate, and the Great Plains are a mere fraction of what it used to be. The animal populations Would never have enough room, let alone with humans around.

[@PredaKing559]

Big cats adapt well to the cold, if we are talking about the genus Panthera, especially since in the past lions lived even in the Arctic.

[@Florida_Man26]

I don't think that reintroducing lions would be beneficial, since we're already seeing the reintroduction of Jaguars in the US. But most things I can agree with, but I think these should only be in national or state parks, as it just isn't good to release them everywhere.

[@Florida_Man26]

Also, if the animal ends up doing too well, I think it's a no-brainer that it should be removed before things get out of hand.

[@PredaKing559]

​​​@@Florida_Man26 The jaguar is the big cat, but hunting bison will still be very difficult for him, so even one lioness will do better.

[@denyoellamcy8251]

Correction : Introducing African lions have no relationship with the American mega fauna

[@PredaKing559]

@@denyoellamcy8251 They don’t only because they don’t live there. And in South-Eastern Europe, the northern subspecies of lion (Panthera leo leo, now found only in India, West and Central Africa) could well have encountered the same European bison, and this is, in fact, an analogue of the American bison.

[@rewild6134]

Ciaran, is this you? 😂

[@Eco-Nerd]

Nope 🤣

[@rewild6134]

@@Eco-Nerd Hmmm...

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@rewild6134 😂😂

[@Lockwood360]

Dire wolf is not related to modern wolves. It's not a wolf at all.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@Lockwood360 Direwolves are in the subtribe canini, the clade that includes wolves and wild dogs, meaning they are more closely related to wolves and wild dogs than they are to foxes. 'Wolf' isn't a clade, it's just a name given to some members of the family caninae, eg. Gray Wolf, Golden Wolf, Maned Wolf, Panted Wolf

[@jameswolf4894]

​@@Eco-Nerd They arent true wolves. Recent DNA a has confirmed this. They are more related to Jackals than wolves, dogs or coyotes.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@jameswolf4894 There's not really such thing as true wolves but no they're not closely related to Grey Wolves. Coyote is the closest relative to Grey Wolves, Red Wolves and Timber Wolves but nobody ever calls it a wolf. Wolf is just a name, not a taxonomic clade. That's a little bit of a misunderstanding of phylogeny there. Dire Wolves diverged from every living species in the tribe canina and then African Jackals diverged next but that doesn't make them the closest living relative. Their closest living relatives phylogenetically are every species in the tribe canina. There is an amazing KZbin channel called Clint's Reptiles and he explains phylogeny brilliantly. He has a video called "You are the Hagfish of Reptiles" and I'd highly recommend it

[@samuelruakere7728]

This is a good video @Ecology Nerd very well researched loved it, they're is just one thing I'd like to point out it's when you said that the ancestors of Native Americans began "hunting clueless prey and out competing the Native predators , while they were struggling to adapt to a changing climate" the "hunting clueless prey and out competing Native predators" is bit wrong, being that humans are estimated to have arrived in the America's 18,000 years ago maybe even more, the Cerutti Mastodon site in which has been estimated to 130,000 years ago may prove that North American animals were already familiar with the genus Homo Erectus for many years if this is true then the Humans threat when they arrived would have been known amongst the many large Mammals of North America, either way humans were a predominant part of Ice Age North America's ecosystem for 1,000's of years and would only have put a little bit of pressure on those large Mammals, this means they were not clueless, they new the threat of Homo Sapiens for 1,000's of years it was mostly the Climate that would have been the issue, all that aside tho' this was a great video I loved it hope this didn't come across as me being hateful just giving some cool as info. well I hope you have a wonderful day @Ecology Nerd and that you take care.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@samuelruakere7728 Thanks for that Samuel! Interesting about the earlier evidence of humans in America! I would still say prey would have been relatively clueless about how to deal with human predation when humans were arriving approx 18,000 years ago though. If they had been there at earlier times there's not enough evidence to say they were there for long periods and that they were established! Hunting weapons and methods of hunting the clovis people used would've been completely alien to the North American animals! I appreciate your feedback and the praise for the video 😊 hope you have a great day too 👌

[@hisownfool1]

In a way, there is a kind of "re-wilding" already underway in pats of the U.S. I live in western New York in a metro area of approximately one million people. Yet in my neighborhood we have deer, coyotes, foxes, and bears. The is true in the New York City area: Less than 25 miles from Times Square you will find these same animals and others. Having said that, I have been fascinated by the re-wilding of the great plains since the idea was proposed, IIRC, in the 1990s.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@hisownfool1 yeah that's amazing in itself! I really admire the animals we think of as common. They've managed to survive where other animals couldn't despite the damage humans do to the environment

[@hisownfool1]

@@Eco-Nerd A great book on this subject is "Coyote America." Despite more than a,century of systematic attempts to eradicate the animal, coyotes are thriving and their range is spreading. They've mastered living near but not with humans.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@hisownfool1 Yeah it's a brilliant book! Have you read his other book, American Serengeti? That's a big reason I made this video and the European Serengeti video

[@hisownfool1]

@@Eco-Nerd Not yet, thanks.

[@BigJFindAWay]

One correction. Black bears are not large predators. They hardly ever prey on anything. They are mostly omnivores and won’t go chasing down deer mustang or elk. I am a big supporter of rewilding America with indigenous wildlife and keeping the mustangs and burros. But not of bringing in Asian, South American, and African animals. That’s just stupid. It will backfire.

[@abduking.]

i think you got a point but i disagree. Out of all the animals he mentioned i think lions are the most important to rewilding. If we leave it be the grazer population will expand too large like they did before the Europeans came in(bisons were everywhere) and that would have devastating effects to the ecosystem and to us. No predator in america can hunt bison consistently. Bears are too slow and wolfs are too small nothing can fill the role of the lion. Jaguars although having the size and the speed are solitary and no lion can hunt these prey alone so jaguars definitely cant.

[@BigJFindAWay]

Wolves do prey on bison. Often. Some wolves actually specialise in it. In fact wolves in the north take down the gargantuan wood bison. Grizzly bears can take the young.

[@abduking.]

@@BigJFindAWay i wouldn't say they specialise on it and also that doesnt take from the fact the vast majority of wolves do not hunt bison on the regular

[@BigJFindAWay]

Wolves in regions where there are bison take them down especially the young. Grizzly bears too. Ok so it’s not possible for them to take down the adults, who cares? Whenever you get an ecosystem with megafauna you’ll get giant animals that can’t be taken by any predator. That’s not a problem. And you certainly don’t go introducing a totally alien predator to the system. In Africa the lions and crocodiles can’t take adult elephants rhinos or hippos. So then what’s your ‘solution’ to that? Killer whales in the rivers?

[@BigJFindAWay]

@@abduking. Probably because most wolves don't live in the same places most bison live, which is our fault. The goal should be to provide habitat for bison and wolves to exist in the same territory. Because where they do the wolves do hunt bison and in fact grizzly bears take the young. Wolves in the far north can even take down the humungus wood bison they have up there. No need to go introducing totally alien predators like lions and tigers. Thats just plain dumb.

[@oceanmariner]

America is over populated for this pipe dream to become reality. As farm land is reduced the remaining farm products will become more expensive. People will go hungry, not just in the US but world wide. The US exports hundreds of millions of tons of farm produce. Much of it from the prairie. You want to roll back the clock, start with fewer humans.

[@Bob_Adkins]

Rewilding is marginally practical in the US. The US government would have to go full Communist and seize land, and they have already seized far too much. In fact, they should auction off all their land to help pay down their huge debt. If large private landowners wish to rewild, that's fine, but not on the taxpayer's dime.

[@dimashlapakovsky3779]

I am all for rewilding but let’s stick with what was here before Columbus and see how that works. Good luck once bears and wolves start roaming residential neighborhoods, killing pets and sometimes people, we’re very far removed from a frontier life now days. Taking animals from other continents that haven’t lived in North America for over 10K years and calling it rewilding is complete nonsense.

[@simonroh4958]

I'm curious how the Native Americans would live through this if it succeeds

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@simonroh4958 Native American nations have done amazing work in both conservation and rewilding. I was listening to a podcast before by Rewilding Earth and he said that any time they approach Native Americans about the need to do something on their land, they pretty much say "we know, do it!". But Pleistocene Rewiliding, using proxies for extinct animals is a very different thing so I have no idea if that would fly. People are people, so probably mixed opinions 😊

[@simonroh4958]

@Eco-Nerd if today's Native Americans hold some moral inheritance of their Paleo-Indian ancestors' success, should they also inherit some negativity for how "their" people played the primary role in these species' extinctions?

[@Eco-Nerd]

@simonroh4958 Well I think all humans should try and repair the damage that was done to biodiversity on each continent after our arrival but I'd be very hesitant to call the first people on the Americas "their people". 20,000 years is a very long time, it's like calling European cavemen "my people", it would have been a completely different culture separated by more than 60,000 generations. The first people who settled on the Americas and hunted the megafauna, were Eurasians at the end of the day.

[@simonroh4958]

@Eco-Nerd do u think although nationality and ethnically native, today's modern indigenous peoples are GEOLOGICALLY invasive their lands, instead they are all truly native to Africa (Pacific Islanders, Europeans, Native North/South Americans, etc)

[@Eco-Nerd]

@simonroh4958 I would say they are native though it's not really for me to say. Everyone originated in Africa at the end of the day so if we're to be pedantic then we're all only native to Africa. I would consider myself a native Irish person, the first Irish people arrived in Ireland 12,000 years ago. The first people of North America arrived long before that time

[@jude175]

Donlon seems to be an attention-seeking circus barker. I hope that smarter people reject his haywire scheme to make a circus out of wild America.

[@cellb2619]

00:01🙄🤔 "when humans arrived in America " . humans were already in America.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@cellb2619 There were no humans in America before the first humans arrived in America. The first evidence of humans in North America is around 25,000 years ago and the first evidence of sustained population and culture is the Clovis people around 12,000 years ago.

[@ac_muncher]

I have an idea What about rewilding south america ?

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@ac_muncher Thanks for the suggestion! It's on my list!

[@GustavSvard]

Random thought: The way that horses got loose and established wild populations (again) in north america, could the same thing have happened with camels? If people had brought over camels in the first couple of centuries of European colonisation, that is. If someone released them in the 1800s they would probably have been hunted out too quickly. hm. Maybe something for an alternate history setting if not just europeans colonise the americas.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@GustavSvard it actually did once happen in USA! A small herd of camels were released in Arizona, they had been in use for building train lines I believe. They were killed off though but I can't remember how or why. If you look up camels in Arizona, you could find some info!

[@guyfaux3978]

@@Eco-Nerd The local natives, like the Apaches, having no use for them as draft animals, likely killed them for the meat and hides.

[@marcuscole1994]

@@Eco-Nerdthey still have camels in Texas

[@KonnorHermann]

...While these ideas are interesting, it's always important to do your research before you just throw a bunch of non-native species into an ecosystem. The species these animals would be replacing have been extinct for a couple thousands of years. Which ponders the risk of ecological disaster if we were to introduce a proxy species into a ecosystem that hasn't been used to the species it's replaced for millennia. And while yes, North America's lack of large cats besides the cougar could be a problem. I like to believe that in the 11,700 years our continents ecosystems have had without these animals, that predators have become better at hunting native prey animals, even if they aren't as adept at it as cats are.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@KonnorHermann Yeah I don't think any ecologists in their right mind would ever suggest introducing an animal without doing years of research first

[@Oziel11]

I, personally, do not support the idea of recreating Pleistocene North America’s ecosystem. There’s a reason it’s gone, after all. The modern ecosystem has moved on, and while hypothetically this is an interesting subject, actually doing it could lead to disaster in the long run. However, I do support rewilding projects that *are* beneficial to the ecosystem, such as the reintroduction of bison and elk to their former ranges. Both are being reintroduced close to my area and they are simply majestic.

[@Dr.Ian-Plect]

Names matter; cheetah and lion specifically refer to Acinonyx jubatus and Panthera leo respectively. It was the 'American cheetah' and 'American lion' that once roamed N. America. These are not the former 2 species.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@Dr.Ian-Plect yep that's correct! I refer to them as such in the video and say that their modern day contemporaries have been suggested as introduced proxies!

[@Dr.Ian-Plect]

@@Eco-Nerd It wasn't aimed at you as a correction (I haven't watched the vid!). It was motivated by a thread on the topic under your vid. Some don't understand the point I state. *However, your response to those terms (in that thread) did not make the correction I do here.* As you've replied, I'm now watching the vid... - You are conservative with the standing height of simus, large polar bears attain 10ft+, and simus averaged the size of large polar bears (sadly, today's polar bears are not the size of even 40 years ago, when 1500lbs was routine, not rare, as today). I would grant it comfortably 11ft for large specimens - I note you state the 3 wolves as species without further qualification, I think you are aware of the ambiguities of the taxonomy - yes, American cheetahs and pronghorns were locked in an evolutionary arms race with speed as the result of the selection pressure

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@Dr.Ian-Plect I used the height I could find from the most reliable source, do you have a source I could read about where they discuss the size of Arctodus Simus? Yep, I'm aware about the debates surrounding the species status of American Wolves but I can't dive deep in to everything I discuss in a video as it takes a lot more time to make a video than you'd think.

[@amitrkelji]

More interesting would be rewildering India because here you have more variety than Africa 😮😮.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@amitrkelji There are parts of India that have pretty much all their animals still! Kaziranga still has tigers, leopards, elephants, rhinos, gaur, water buffalo etc. I think for India, expanding the amazing areas they have is the priority

[@amitrkelji]

@@Eco-Nerd but no lions. I'm talking about the rest of Indian forests like Tadoba, Gir, Sundarbans, Kahini, Corbett, Bandhavgarh. Some don't have wild buffalo and gaura. Also lion population distribution program is still at hold.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@amitrkelji Yeah, of course they can have more wild areas and lions and cheetahs are still missing! But India still has some brilliant wild areas

[@abhijeetgaurav9477]

What about Native Americans.

[@Eco-Nerd]

@@abhijeetgaurav9477 Humans arrived in North America between 20-15,000 years ago and they would have been the ancestors to Native Americans

[@ruggerogrottanelli3655]

Why don't you guys let native Americans lead conservation of their own continent? They were doing stellar before we Europeans came around. Seriously, if anyone knows how to increase biodiversity in their area, is them. Read braiding sweetgrass to get an idea

[@abduking.]

i think that should be done first then we also introduce other species which fill the role that was lost in america like the lion.

[@francogiobbimontesanti3826]

Native americans are even more responsible for the extinction if the america´s megafauna than europeans are. Horses, camels, short faced bears, sloths. mammoths. It was all hunted to extinction by them. Europeans weren´t any better in their own continent but don´t infantlize Native people. They are just as capable of distruction as any one else. The consevation efferts that we normaly see by natives are done by specific native people and not by a conjoined affort of the whole community most of the time.

[@guyfaux3978]

Not to mention that eco-tourism safaris as a money maker are probably better for society than casinos or untaxed cigarette stores would be.

[@DanteJulius-f6u]

I agree with that. Maybe not necessarily ONLY allowing existing indigenous groups to lead conservation (unsure if that was the original intent of your comment), as we need a heck ton of people to take action if we are to make any progress in conservation, but I 100% agree that we should follow their methods and ideologies in regards to conservation, 'rewilding', and going about our lives. Most Indigenous American peoples recognized that humanity wasn't some separate entity from the natural world, but an intimate part of it. That is the reason I currently disagree with the whole 'American Serengeti' idea. Ecosystems were intact and functioning, doing what they do best, for several thousand years after the extinction of these megafauna (with humans present, I might add). While it's still technically possible that there are some niches left vacant due to the absence of megafauna, I think it's more likely that humans took up those roles (in terms of the consumption of extant American Bison, which were undoubtedly preyed upon by megafaunal apex predators). In terms of the extinct herbivores, their niches were likely taken by the American Bison (populations appear to boom in the fossil record / at archeological digs following the Pleistocene), and since these megafauna went extinct, no predators (humans included) had to prey on them to keep their populations in check (if Bison did take over their niches, however, humans are needed to mitigate Bison populations). Thus, I see no need to mess up a system that already works. Bison, elk, moose, deer, and pronghorn already fulfill their niches of grazing, thinning the understory, cropping prairie grasses, etc., and whenever wolves, cougars, coyotes, and bears can't keep their populations in check and mitigate overgrazing, us humans step in. Better yet, when grazer populations are stable enough, we can integrate ourselves into the ecosystem by hunting these animals in a regulated fashion, as many indigenous groups did. Yum. We even get to benefit, as we get food to feed our hungry that is FAR more sustainable than meat from CAFOs. I think there's no need to introduce massive, extinct herbivores that need similarly massive, extinct predators to control them, particularly if we don't even know what exactly they'll do or if any niches they previously occupied still exist in present day ecosystems. A lot has changed since the time American megafauna were around (the climate has changed significantly. Many plant assemblages and communities likely changed as well), so I take it to be very foolish to think placing them in modern day ecosystems will work. It's very likely that these ecosystems could see benefits if us humans (as a collective) simply give up our whole "we're superior to and separate from nature" attitude and help balance out any ecological deficits. It worked splendidly before the Europeans arrived. Additionally, I don't think this idea, even if it is good, should be among our ecological priorities. Priorities such as reintegrating the natural world into human life (through reforming agriculture, revitalizing indigenous foodways, using native vegetation in landscaping, etc.), diminishing invasive species, and fighting climate change should all be considered MUCH more important (in my opinion) than bringing back extinct megafauna. Side note: I also read Braiding Sweetgrass. Hella good book. More people should read it. Some nice resources for learning (where I got some of of the information backing up my claims, as well as some of the things that have shaped my opinions): @AncientAmericas (Hella bomb YT channel) Bringing Nature Home by Doug Tallamy Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

[@famebrightstudio451]

so much of rewilding seems like humans playing god. I watch Pantdora vids about his huge terrarium and listen to you guys and it sounds like sheer animal wank. Better off inventing a time machine.

[@Grand_History]

you will not solve ecological issues by introducing more non native wildlife. very very bad idea

[@WildMan-eg4lu]

Every thing about this is a bad idea

[@IndependentThinker74]

I don't think so. Most of the extinct species went extinct because of human activity. Rewilding the continent would be the closest thing to resurrecting those species.

[@Peepaw_Afton_Art]

Not everything, I think bringing animals from other continents is a bad idea but the rewilding the native animals would be good.

[@JosePena-hj6ll]

humans didn’t kill all the animals nonsense

[@deep-fried-zombie699]

Hahaha not with the rate of immigration were seeing these rewilding projects will lead to nothing 😂