Rewilding

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
For rewilding human animals, see Rewilding (anarchism).
A rewilded South China Tiger of the Save China's Tigers rewilding project hunting blesbuck

Rewilding is the process of returning species, habitats and landscapes to a natural state, as they would be without the intervention of humans. It includes the return of captive animals to the wild, and the reintroduction of wild individuals from other parts of the range of the species.

Contents

[edit] Origin

Question book-new.svg
 This section needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2009)

The word "rewilding" was coined by conservationist and ex-carnivore manager of Pilanesberg National Park, Gus Van Dyk in 2003. Gus Van Dyk, who in an effort to find the most appropriate translation of the Chinese term “野化”, chose to adopt the term "rewilding" to describe Save China's Tigers rewilding project of the South China Tiger.[1] Since then, the term "rewilding" has been widely used by wildlife organisations worldwide.

[edit] The need to be rewilded

Not all animals have to be rewilded before being reintroduced back into the wild, as a general rule, captive carnivores unlike herbivores have to be rewilded before they can be released. This is because captive carnivore species will need to be rehabilitated and must regain their hunting instincts to increase their chances of surviving before being released.[2]

Reintroduction without rewilding is also possible if the animals involved are from the wild and not captive-bred, this is also known as relocation.[3][4] In relocation, wild animals are often moved from a reserve to another reserve to either enhance the genetic diversity of the latter reserve or to reintroduce the a species back into a reserve where that particular species has been exterminated entirely.[5][6]

A predator’s behaviour depends on three factors: instinct, individual learning, and tradition.[7] Therefore predators in the wild learn everything, particularly how to hunt, from their mothers. However captive-bred predators do not have such luxury, thus there is a need to rewild them and let them regain their hunting abilities.[2]

[edit] Reasons for rewilding

Rewilding can be classified as both ex-situ and in-situ conservation as it involves captive breeding and then rehabilitating the animal and allowing it to regain its survival abilities before releasing it. So captive breeding is also a key part of rewilding because the captive population of a particular species is directly proportioned to the number of individuals that be sent to undergo rewilding training.

But the question is often raised as why not just conserve animals by in-situ conservation; by breeding them in captivity alone? The reason is that a species is considered biologically extinct if it has died out in the wild, even if there are some individuals in captivity. It has lost its function in nature as nature no longer has it. Those remained in captivity will have to mate among close relatives and will gradually lose their abilities for survival. This will eventually lead to the final extinction of the entire species, hence rewilding is a necessary step to save critically endangered species from extinction.[8]

[edit] First official rewilding project and experiment

Main article: Save China's Tigers

The first official rewilding project was the Save China's Tigers rewilding project. Save China's Tigers aims to rewild the critically endangered South China Tiger by bringing a few captive-bred individuals to South Africa for rehabilitation training for them to regain their hunting instincts. At the same time, a pilot reserve in China is being set-up and the Tigers will be relocated and release back in China when the reserve in China is ready.[8] The South China tiger has been listed as one of the world's 10 most endangered animals[9] and was later declared extinct in the wild in 2002.[10]

The reason South Africa was chosen is because it is able to provide expertise and resources, land and game for the South China tigers. The South China Tigers of the project has since been successfully rewilded and are fully capable of hunting and surviving on their own.[8] This project is also very successful in the breeding of these rewilded South China Tigers and 5 cubs have been born in the project, these cubs of the 2nd generation would be able to learn their survival skills from their successfully rewilded mothers directly.[11]

[edit] North American Pleistocene Rewilding

The Bolson Tortoise (Gopherus flavomarginatus) was recently brought to the world's attention when in August, 2005 a provocative article on “Pleistocene rewilding” appeared in the journal Nature (Donlan, et al., 2005), proposing that megafauna that went extinct in North America at the close of the Pleistocene (~12,800 years ago) be reintroduced to the continent to create a Pleistocene Park. The Bolson tortoise was the first species proposed for this restoration effort. The tortoise is unique in that, unlike other North American fauna that went extinct at the close of the Pleistocene, (like mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers and giant ground sloths) it is not extinct. Fossil remains of the tortoise were described long before the living tortoise was discovered in 1959 in Durango, Mexico- a true living fossil. In 2006 the Bolson tortoise was rewilded to two ranches in New Mexico owned by media mogul Ted Turner.

[edit] Siberia Pleistocene Rewilding

The aim of Siberia Pleistocene rewilding is to recreate the ancient mamooth steppe by means reintroduction big animals. First step was succeful muskox reintroduction on the Taymyr Peninsula and Wrangel island. In 1988, researcher Sergey Zimov create Siberian Pleistocene Park - nature reserve in northeastern Siberia for full-scale megafauna rewilding. In park was introdused Yakutian horses,reindeer, snow sheep, elk and moose. Now for introduction planned yak, bactrian, red deer and siberian tiger. But most important species for ecosystem is wood bison. The wood bison, a closest relative of the ancient bison that died out in Siberia 1000 or 2000 yers ago. In 2006 30 bison calves were flown from Edmonton, Alberta to Yakutsk. Now they live in the government-run reserve of Ust'-Buotama. [edit]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Rare South China cubs head for South Africa, September 1st 2003 | Save China's Tigers
  2. ^ a b Tiger Rewilding | Save China's Tigers
  3. ^ Tigers relocated back into Sariska | India wildlife watch
  4. ^ Relocated Sariska tiger likely to be released soon | India Express
  5. ^ Lion reintroduced into Pilanesberg from Ethosha National Park | Bateleurs
  6. ^ Small Pride of Lions to be Introduced into Northern Part of Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park | Lion Research center
  7. ^ Snow Leopard Survival Strategy | Urs and Christine Breitenmoser
  8. ^ a b c FAQs | Save China's Tigers
  9. ^ South China Tiger Believed Still Exists in Wild - china.org.cn
  10. ^ History | Save China's Tigers
  11. ^ The Baby Tiger That's Beating Extinction | Youtube Channel-SkyNews

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rewilding"
Languages