Photograph from Colorado Parks and Wildlife
Species repopulation projects are on the rise across the globe from reintroduction, the action of putting a species of animal or plant back into a former habitat, to de-extinction, the process of resurrecting species that have died out, or gone extinct through bioengineering. This piece uses the gray wolf reintroduction project as a case study to explore repopulation topics, specifically how this case can prove to voters that controlled repopulation projects can be of benefit to both the environment and ecological landscapes.
Gray wolves are native to Colorado, outdating human activity within the state. These native gray wolf populations were fully eradicated 80 years ago by the residents of Colorado. Gray wolves kept the ecological balance of the state but since the 1940 eradication, there has been a lack of apex predators to maintain prey populations.
In 1940, Colorado ranchers and cattle hands, to protect their livestock, sent the state on a mission to extinguish the gray wolf population. Through a series of hunting, trapping, and poisoning, the population of gray wolves fell quickly. This movement to eradicate gray wolves was sponsored by the U.S. government all across Western America during this period.
The reasoning behind their eradication began due to an ecological crisis in Colorado during the 1940s. Hunters lowered the elk, bison, and deer populations to the point where the wolves began preying on livestock in the area to survive. However, removing an apex predator is not just detrimental to the food chain but also the environment. No wolf populations means an overpopulation of bison, elk, and deer which has caused overgrazing of the grasslands and vegetation all across the state.
In 2019, after much pushback from the ranching and farming community, Colorado voted to pass legislation bringing a gray wolf reintroduction project to the State. The pushback from ranchers called to delay the reintroduction in hopes of stopping it altogether to protect their livestock. Hank Greely, an American lawyer and law professor in bioethics and genetic bioengineering, says “Local opposition (mainly from ranchers in most cases) is legitimate but shouldn’t be given a veto” in legislation for repopulation projects like this one. He does bring up that a compensation package could be given to the ranchers affected by the proposed or passed projects as a compromise on the
matter.
This project began its first round of releases in late 2023, introducing ten gray wolves to the western side of Colorado, relocated from Oregon. All the wolves have been tagged with trackers to be monitored closely. The plan is to introduce thirty to fifty wolves over the next three to five years in hopes of repopulating the area fully.
Controversy about de-extinction sciences and reintroduction practices has become more common in recent years. The ethics and practicality of bringing back extinct animals are two key debates in reintroducing species to previously eradicated areas. Many scholars of ecological studies and evolutionary biology do not support de-extinction efforts but do support reintroduction. Lynn Rothschild, an evolutionary biologist, bases her opinion on the genetic variability of de-extinct species and the negative implications of inbreeding. Rothschild does support reintroduction in cases such as the project of wolves and Yellowstone. How dissimilar are these two forms of re-population projects?
Professor Greely says that the forms are extremely similar on the ecological side, just not the biological one. He explains that one is the reintroduction of a species that was locally extinct but could be reintroduced through relocation from other states. In contrast, the other is a bioengineered species brought back from total extinction through scientific intervention.
A comparison Professor Greely made was that of gray wolves, a locally extinct species in Colorado, to dire wolves, which are a fully extinct species. He notes, “We mainly know how to trap, or raise, and then move living animals more than we know how to ‘de-extinct’ them as of today”, but de-extinction could be a real possibility as science continues to progress in the coming decades.
Future implementation of these de-extinction ideas, such as “rewilding”, bring efforts to restore the U.S. Great Plains back to Pleistocene times. This idea is to repopulate the area with extremely similar species to sabretooth tigers, wooly mammoths, and other species. An example of this would be relocating African lions and elephants there to begin to restore the ecosystem. Professor Greely says, “I think both (de-extinction and reintroduction) should be used but carefully”. While he notes that ecologically it can be beneficial to reintroduce species or “de-extinct” species, it must be done with care and the ability to understand the ecosystem’s ability to handle either form of re-population
plans while noting how human populations may be affected.
The Colorado reintroduction project could convince scholars and policymakers to look into other repopulation projects by proving that needs such as human safety, ecological awareness, and animal welfare standards can all be met.
Examples of future projects that could reflect that of the gray wolf reintroduction are African lion/sabertooth tiger Pleistocene rewilding and African cheetah reintroduction to India.
---
Haley Craig is an undergraduate senior majoring in Public Policy and Politics while minoring in English Creative Writing. She focused her studies on environmental policy and justice. She is also a member of the Stanford Women's Soccer team.
Комментарии