What Would a Canadian Pleistocene Rewilding Agency Look Like, and How Would It Work?

It should be no secret to any of my regular readers at this point that I, if at all possible, plan on implementing Pleistocene rewilding strategies here in my home country, Canada. I must say that I am disappointed with the overall lack of progress or even discussion of significant megafauna introductions and dedicated reserves here. However, the fact that it hasn't been done yet means I can potentially get the ball rolling myself and put my own spin on it.

Now, I know what some of you are thinking, why Canada? If anywhere doesn't need more wildlife, it's there. Large numbers of predators and ungulates roam the country, many in places where human influence is practically absent. Canada is the second largest country in the world after Russia, but with fewer people than the state of California. We have huge amounts of land, much of which is already put aside for nature conservation. But, the abundance and diversity of large mammals is a shadow of it's former condition. The prairies, forests, and tundra of this country were once huge savannahs and steppes filled with a plethora and variety of megafauna to rival the plains of Kenya or South Africa. It was only upon the introduction of humans fifteen thousand years ago, that so many species went extinct and so few remained.

So, through mass introductions of absent species or close relatives/alternatives in experimental reserves, we have the potential to create a new, enriched, productive set of ecosystems which will benefit us in many ways. Ecotourism would be one of the main boons, with safaris and game hunts made much more interesting, and consequently much more profitable. Canada is already a competitive ecotourism destination even with only comparatively few species of large mammal. It could be so much bigger. If done sustainably, and on a large enough scale, and assuming our population density remains low, rewilding might even provide a healthy, humane, sustainable protein resource for the whole nation.

Such reserves would create the necessity for huge amounts of employment as tour guides, maintenance workers, security personnel, administrators, and customer service representatives. They might also create demand for hotels or even airports outside the limits of the park. Make the parks big enough and there could be a tourist destination at each corner, thus bringing in more revenue and creating more jobs. Many research and employment opportunities would be created for all sorts of biologists and earth scientists, as well as veterinarians, animal handlers, professional hunters, and gamekeepers. Many construction workers would need to be hired to create infrastructure and barriers for the parks and the corridors connecting them.

There is also huge potential for the conservation not only of native megafauna, but also of the large animals brought in as ecological surrogates for extinct species. For example, Przewalski’s horses (Equus ferus przewalski), Gobi camels (Camelus ferus ferus), and Persian lions (Panthera leo persica) are all endangered and are all possible introductions here. They and several other species could be given a huge boost if given the space and treatment that a Canadian rewilding program could offer them. Backup populations of these species will be a huge step in their conservation. Canada has already helped create such populations of it’s own species, by donating breeding groups of muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus moschatus) and wood bison (Bison bison athabascae) to Russian Siberia.

So, if it is agreed that such a movement was created, what would it be called. I’ve learned that the best way to get any real progress done is to take the reins away from the government and privatize it. The best way to get people to do what you want is to make it profitable. Such an organization would need a name and a game plan. It would require very few resources to get started, but would require a lot of public and political support.

What would we call such an organization? Personally, I like the “Canadian Large Animal Wildlife Society”, but if anyone has other ideas I’d certainly like to hear them. I also considered calling it simply “Rewilding Canada”, but seemed to imply that I have an association with the already existing organizations “Rewilding Europe” and “Rewilding Australia”, which I do not.

This organization would need to make ties with similar organizations in countries from which it wished to acquire animals. Mongolia is a big one, for it is from there that breeding populations of takhi, onager, and camel could be acquired. I imagine a certain amount of money, and a greater amount of promises could create a partnership there. It might be that we have animals to offer in exchange, such as plains bison. The organization would eventually be self-funded and potentially very profitable, but it would require a large amount of funding to get started on fencing and introductions.

I believe the first park would be created in south-western Saskatchewan, to the west of Grasslands National Park. Here, a restored population of native fauna could be bolstered to high numbers. These animals would include wolves, bears, cougars, elk, mule and whitetail deer, pronghorn antelope, bison, and bighorn sheep. Later ecological proxies could be brought in such as the takhi to replace Equus scotti, the onager to replace Equus conversidens, the wild camel to replace Camelops hesternus¸ the guanaco to replace Hemiauchenia macrocephala, and the Persian lion to replace Panthera leo atrox. More extreme introductions might include the takin to replace Euceratherium collinum, the boar to replace Platygonus compressus, and the Iranian cheetah to replace Miracinonyx trumani.

If this park is successful, then resources from it could spark the creation of other parks. Similar parks could be created from eastern BC to western Manitoba. More northerly parks in the territories could contain fauna representative of the mammoth steppe, such as wood bison, Dall sheep, muskox, saiga, moose, elk, caribou, horse, kiang, and camel.

Looking into the far future, such parks would create a refuge for species brought back from extinction, for which we have no proxy. Such species might include woolly mammoths, American mastodons, giant beavers, Jefferson’s ground sloth, the giant short-faced bear, and the scimitar cat.

So while Canada is doing comparatively well in amount of ecologically active land, we aren’t benefiting from that as much as we could, nor are we giving it access to the raw material it once had with which to create new ecologies.

I know that any ecosystem we create is not going to be identical to past ecosystems, but that’s not really the point. The point is to create new, more diverse, more productive systems with more space, and using past ecosystems as a guideline for what types of species have worked in the past.