Pros And Cons Of Rewilding

There is a lot of legislation and planning that must be done before a project like reintroducing wolves to Yellowstone can be implemented. There are many issues that have to be carefully considered and taken into account; one of the major issues that stops rewilding projects taking place is human attitudes to reintroductions of top carnivores, such as wolves. One particular issue raised by local residents was that the wolves would predate their livestock (FWS, 1994), one of the main reasons wolves were extirpated from the Yellowstone area originally was the conflicts with livestock (FWS, 1994). However, there is reliable data that suggest wolves very rarely predate livestock (Fritts, 1984). This has since been found to be true, in the Yellowstone

This has been shown to have happened in the case of rewilding Yellowstone; since the wolves were originally lost from the park, the grazing, of Elk in particular, led to a huge loss in trees and shrubs along the banks of rivers which destabilised banks and reduced rain interception, however since the reintroduction and subsequent drop in Elk population, the number of larger plants along the bank has increased significantly (Beschta & Ripple, 2006), this has led to the banks becoming more stable, and flooding becoming less

One species that has been reintroduced in many countries over the years is the Eurasian Lynx (Lynx lynx). Around 11,500 years ago, in the Holocene, Lynx were widespread across Europe and the United Kingdom (UK) (Sommer & Benecke, 2006); however, by the early 20th century Lynx were extinct across Western Europe and only 4 populations remained across the rest of Europe (Hayward & Somers, 2009). However, the fate of the Lynx turned around with a change of human attitudes towards them and tighter restrictions on the persecution of the species. There have been reintroductions of Lynx at 15 different sites in 8 countries since 1977 (Hayward & Somers, 2009). One successful reintroduction of Lynx was conducted in the Swiss Alps in 1971; six Lynx were released officially into the Swiss Alps, however it is thought that another 19 were also set free around this time in various locations around the mountains (MacDonald & Loveridge, 2010) this and the fact that proper population monitoring only started in 1983 leads to the results being less accurate than they could be. This reintroduction appears to have been successful, however it did cause controversy among the residents near the release sites of the Lynx; one main issue residents rose was that the Lynx were killing many of the ungulate speceis they used for sport hunting and the number of ungulates killed by hunters