Re: Bringing Back The Mammoth (again)

[Tommy Tyrberg <tommy.tyrberg@norrkoping.mail.telia.com>]

At 22:07 2006-08-15, GSP1954@aol.com wrote:
> There will be ethical concerns about reviving mammoths if it can ever be
> done. I would tend to be for it especially if it is plausible to 
> reintroduce them
> to the wild, although that may not be doable according to those who argue 
> that
> the proper habitats no longer exist.
>
> GSPaul

There is a school of thought (to which I incline) that the main reason for 
the scarcity of mammoth habitat is the absence of mammoths. This may seem 
outlandish, but when one has seen what megafauna (elephants, hippopotami) 
can do to vegetation it does not seem so unlikely.

However I can think of a number of areas where the habitat seems suitable, 
and has not changed very much since mammoths were around. Wrangels land 
immediately comes to mind, but also a number of intermontane valleys in 
Yakutia with steppe-tundra vegetation and the Altai mountains. In the 
latter area both faunal and floral evidence seems to indicate that habitat 
is practically unchanged since the Late Pleistocene except for vertical 
displacement of vegetation zones.

Also it seems unlikely that mammoths had narrow habit requirements. Both 
extant elephant species can live in habitat varying from rainforest to 
semidesert.

Tommy Tyrberg