Some Russian and American scientists are planning to recreate an ecosystem that once included woolly mammoths, which disappeared from Earth over 10,000 years ago. These projects will directly impact biodiversity and help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
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Photo: Thinkquest |
Sergei Zimov, the director of the Tcherski Scientific Research Station at the Russian Academy of Sciences located in northeastern Siberia, plans to recreate the landscape that vanished completely from Earth 10,000 years ago and revive the massive herds of woolly mammoths. With a project named Pleistocene Park, Zimov aims to address questions about the impact of modern humans on the environment and to find solutions to save the planet.
About 10,000 years ago, many large mammal species disappeared entirely from the Earth as humans emerged. This change marked the end of the Pleistocene epoch, which began 1.6 million years ago. Following this period, thousands of large mammal species vanished from the northern continents of Eurasia, America, Australia, and Madagascar. North America was hit hardest, with 70% of large mammal species going extinct.
Theoretically, climate change and the melting of ice altered vegetation, which in turn affected large herbivores. The disappearance of these animals subsequently reduced the numbers of predator species, including saber-toothed cats and cave lions. However, Zimov does not entirely agree with this explanation. According to him, human hunting activities were the primary reason for the extinction of large mammals.
The Pleistocene Park project has been underway since 1989 in the Republic of Yakutia, Russia, located on the edge of Siberia. This park spans 160 square kilometers of steppe and forest along the lower Kolyma River, about 30 kilometers south of Tcherski. The goal of this project is to recreate the “woolly mammoth steppe ecosystem,” which was once present in northeastern Siberia, western Europe, Canada, and northern China.
The Russian biologist plans to create an ecosystem characterized by cold, dry steppes covered with undulating vegetation to provide habitat for many herds of herbivores such as woolly mammoths, aurochs, moose, rhinoceroses, Tibetan yaks, reindeer, muskoxen, horses, and caribou. Following these herbivores, or at least the species that still exist today, predator species such as wolves, bears, lynxes, and even Siberian tigers will be introduced into the park.
Zimov’s project is not the only one of its kind in the world. In the United States, a team of researchers led by Professor Josh Dolan of Cornell University initiated a similar plan in 2005. According to Dolan, as revealed in an article published in the journal Nature, the aim of this project is to encourage the development of large vertebrate species in North America.
The recreation of Pleistocene fauna will be achieved through a series of ecosystem management interventions, by introducing species closely related to the extinct large vertebrates of the Pleistocene. This approach will change the principles of nature conservation, such as managing species extinction and actively restoring natural processes. For example, the project will involve the breeding of Asian wild asses, Przewalski’s horses, Turkestan camels, steppe leopards, Asian elephants, African elephants, and lions. This work will need to extend over at least a century but could create one or more historical ecological parks covering the entire Midwestern region of the U.S. The recreation of Pleistocene fauna could be an optimistic solution to save species from extinction.
Zimov’s project has even more ambitious goals. In an article published in the journal Science, he explains that if widely implemented, his idea could reduce hundreds of gigatons (1 gigaton = 9 billion tons) of carbon currently trapped in permafrost regions. Therefore, it could help mitigate the greenhouse effect. According to him, humanity could avoid the greenhouse effect by restoring the natural conditions of the Pleistocene. These ecosystems have a high reflectivity to sunlight, helping to reduce global warming. Additionally, snow and ice would take longer to melt. In summary, this means that regenerating green ecosystems from the Pleistocene could alleviate some of the adverse effects of the greenhouse effect.
What about the resurrection of the woolly mammoth? According to Professor Adrian Lister, a Pleistocene mammal expert at University College London, Russian and Japanese scientists plan to clone woolly mammoths using eggs from modern elephants combined with DNA extracted from woolly mammoth remains found in permafrost regions. However, this seems far-fetched as cloning may not succeed with the current “poor and fragmented” DNA. Although optimistic, Zimov remains very pragmatic: “In the future, perhaps in several decades, if someone successfully resurrects the woolly mammoth, Pleistocene Park will be the best place to raise them.”
The Russian scientist does not rule out the possibility that this park could welcome adventure tourists. “We could organize hunting trips there, but people can only use stone weapons,” he humorously remarked.
