Reintroduction of Lost Species

We're used to stories about man-made extinctions of animals caused by human interference or downright destruction. What is encouraging, though, is that we're starting to learn lessons about putting back vital links into ecosystems that we destroyed.

Take for example this story about the reintroduction of top predator the wolf back into Yellowstone National Park in the USA, where it had been absent for 70 years. Not only did the reintroduced wolves not wipe out everything else, they did in fact have a magical regenerative effect on the park's ecosystem:

Before Columbus landed in North America there was thought to be 60 million bison roaming the continent, sustainably hunted by the Native American population. By 1890 these had been practically hunted to extinction by European settlers, with only a staggeringly small 750 surviving. The effect of this near extinction of the major grazing animal upon the grasslands was was thought to be one of the contributory factors of the Great Dust Bowl crisis of the 1930s.  Following a successful reintroduction programme, American Bison numbers are now above 360,000 and rising and the effect upon the ecology of the prairies is expected to be significantly beneficial:

Closer to home, colonies of sea eagles have been reintroduced back to Scotland from Norway after an absence of 200 years having been hunted to extinction on these shores:

Elsewhere in the UK, otters were pretty much wiped out in England by the 1970s due to pollution and hunting, but have since returned to every county in England and are prolific in Scotland and Wales:

There has also been the first sightings of wild beavers in an English river in 500 years in the river Otter in Devon in February 2014, plus a planned reintroduction of beavers into the forest lochs near the Sound of Jura in Argyll, while plans to release the species into the wild in Wales have also moved a step closer:

And check out these awe inspiring shots of European Bison back on UK shores, extinct in England since the 12th century but now being introduced in small pockets in England and Scotland:

And these aren't isolated success stories. In the UK there have been successful reintroduction programs for glanville fritillary and heath fritillary butterflies, northern goshawks, osprays on Rutland Water, red kites, red squirrels, reindeer, wild boar and white tailed eagles. Planned reintroduction schemes include brown bears, elk, lynx, golden eagles, grey wolves, white storks and grey whales back into the UK.

Elsewhere around the world there have been successful reintroduction programs including Alpine ibexes in France, Arabian oryx in the middle-east, vultures in the French Alps, musk ox in Alaska, and so on. There are also proposed reinrtoduction programs for for Asiatic lions in India, Caucasian red deer in Armenia, cheetahs in India, and the South China Tiger.

The reintroduction of these species helps to restore biodiversity thanks to an increase in global awareness of the importance of biological diversity in the ecosystem and the positive effect this has for all species, ourselves included.