I really wanted to be the first one to have a rewilding in North America. So in Honeycomb Campgrounds in Utah I want to introduce jaguars, grizzly bears, muskoxen, reindeer, dromedary camels, gray wolves, American bison, mountain goats, Nevada wild horses & guanacos as long as we have more populations of mule deer, elk, bighorn sheep & moose and the other herbivores have enough plants and vegetation to feed on.

Larger, mainland fauna tends to outshine the lesser island-country fauna. My home country, the Dominican Republic, has had its own share of megafauna, as well as still existing fauna of course, this post's purpose is to bring some spotlight to this topic

Image 1- Hispaniolan Solenodon (Endangered): Solenodon paradoxus, this is a small shrew like mammal, it is one of the few existing mammals to have a venomous bite. They are Insectivores. They are endemic to the island of Hispaniolan and tend to be called a "living fossil". It is one of only two remaining native terrestrial mammals on the island.

Image 2- Hispaniolan Hutia (Endangered): Plagiodontia aedium, this is the other last remaining native terrestrial mammal, living a mostly arboreal life, the Hispaniolan Hutia moves from tree-to-tree walking among the branches and feeding off fruits and insects.

Having focused the first few on smaller still existing, yet endangered fauna, I'll now focus on our extinct Megafauna, sadly, for most of them, the information available isn't really much.

Image 3- Hispaniolan Ground Sloth (Extinct): Acratocnus, this was a complete genus of ground sloths native to the Caribbean islands including what is now the Dominican Republic during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene.

Image 4- Hispaniolan Monkey (Extinct): Antillothrix bernensis, not exactly sure if this is "megafauna" but it is an animal that lived in the same time period and also went extinct along with them. Very little is known of this species of monkey, they most likely ate fruits and insects, they are known only from their fossilized remains in some national parks. The indigenous Taino included their depictions in pictographs in caves.

Image 5- Hispaniolan Tortoise (Northern: C. dominicensis , Southern*:* C. marcanoi) were a subgroup of tortoise endemic of the island of Hispaniola. Only known from fossilized remains. Dry forests in the south of the island were the final refuge for Hispaniola’s giant tortoises, as climate changes at the Pleistocene-Holocene boundary, around 11,000 years ago, replaced their former semi-arid habitats with tropical forests unsuitable for tortoises, driving them to extinction

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Link to full article: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.etvbharat.com/amp/en/!bharat/tiger-population-increases-threefold-in-assams-manas-national-park-research-enn24110903390&ved=2ahUKEwiuvam4t8-JAxW_h1YBHfCDGRIQyM8BKAB6BAgKEAI&usg=AOvVaw38iT-rCQ-L38NlS18A8SY9

Important note from the article:- This count is excluding the elephant numbers from India's northeastern states as they are still waiting for results from these states.

Also from the article:- However, a wildlife scientist associated with the project, who requested anonymity, told TOI that "increasing human activity might be affecting the elephant population". He said, "The population may have dropped due to rising anthropogenic pressures on their habitat.

Link to the full article:- https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/dehradun/alarming-decline-in-indias-elephant-population-from-198k-in-2017-to-159k-in-2023/articleshow/114054934.cms

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veN4UPXBjeg&ab_channel=MeatEaterPodcastNetwork

I just listened to this podcast this morning and remembered that there was an article on the subject posted to this subreddit a few weeks ago. I thought it was interesting and thought others might as well.

If you're only interested in the discussion of feral horses and how they're managed on the Wind River reservation their conversation on that begins around the 21:00 minute mark.

The Carpathians are often called “Europes last true wilderness” and for the most part it is. The mountains are home to a healthy population of wisent, wolves, bears, lynx, chamois, and more, however multiple species that historically inhabited the mountains have since disappeared. Do you think that a large-scale reintroduction project for these species would be possible and/or successful? The species who have gone extinct in the mountains are alpine ibex, moose, Eurasian beaver and European mink. Could these animals survive in the mountains currently and finally make them a true wilderness?

Nurken Sharbiyev, Vice Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Kazakhstan, citing the fact that the country’s snow leopard population has increased by over 20% since 2019, to between 152 and 189 animals, stated, “This memorandum will strengthen the links between our countries to conserve this globally important species.”

Link to the full article:- https://timesca.com/kazakhstan-and-kyrgyzstan-to-cooperate-on-snow-leopard-conservation/

https://youtu.be/ircmbPxfaK0?si=Ac8avIHpKbikeRUc

I always see instagram videos of people getting chased by bulls mostly in Spain. If you look beside the stupidity of these events and look at the bulls.. I always think those are perfect candidates for breeding back programms. They are often athletic with slender legs, the snout is elongated and the horns often have a good form. Of course they are way smaller and also other things are not correct but all in all they look good. Now I remember that they used the during the times of the Heck brothers but stopped because they are too aggressive. But shouldn’t they be? I mean other wild bovine species aren’t really docile either plus they have to defend themselves against predators. So my question is are they using these breeds again or have they completely abandoned them?

Hello, I was thinking about the situation with rewilding europe where many of the megafauna are gone and we can or could replace it its modern counterparts and relatives. Nowadays the main focus in CE and E in general is the reintroduction of wisents, aurochs and horses into the nature while bears and wolves are left to do its thing.
I was wondering what else we could reintroduce to Europe to replace the extinct megafauna or fauna in general without affecting the balance that much.

My thoughts went to the Bos taurus x Bos indicus as another species of grazers related but distinct from the backbred taurus aurochs, yaks (could replace wooly rhino in the way and style of grazing?), water buffallo (some reintroduction has been done in CE), american bison (done in caucasus and eastern europe), Nilgai, onager aka wild donkey/ass, Przewalski's horse (believed to be another ancient breed of horse but with distinct genetics). Bactrian camel and llama, as a replacement for its extinct european relatives,. Musk ox could be an addition to Northern Europe or alpine areas of Carpathians or Alps.

As a predatory animals - it would be hard but great to reintroduce the Brown Bear from Slovakian wilderness to the rest of Europe because of its overpopulation in Tatra mountains. Lynx are slowly making its return all over the place - the same could be said for wolves but I think that the addition of Dholes woud not be bad as it is able to whistand colder weather and would balance out the animals. Indian Lions in europe could be risky but they would be the prime apex predators - unlike wolves they could be less predictable.
In eastern europe the reintroduction of siberian tigers could be an achievement.

Everyone's fave Mammoths are said to make a comeback in this or the next decade. Many people are forgetting that there were other elephant species in Europe so maybe a reintroduction of asiatic or african forest elephants could come in hand over time in some places which are one of habitat and ecosystem engineers along with beavers and other mammals.

One of the grazers that could make a successful return is Scimitar oryx, which could replace the extinct species.

Many parts of the continent are missing large scavengers (griffon vulture, black vulture, egyptian vulture) where they used to be due the lack of big animals which were mentioned earlier.

Some places have introduced non-native deer species filling the niche of other animals but they are interbreeding which may cause a bit of problem which could be prolly in theory solved by the predatory and opportunistic animals.

Another animal that came to mind was hyena as both predator and scavenger but it could be a poblem since they are bold, cocky and would have no problem to venture into city just like foxes, invasive raccoons and tanuki.

In the UK and Manx there are feral wallabies as grazers and the same goes for Lesser Rhea in Germany.
Rhea is a nice replacement for the native flightless birds that were present as megafauna.

CE could reintroduce a flock of Greater Flamingo which were seen the till 1950's, Greece and few other countries could add back pygmy hippo to replace what they have lost.

It would be a long time to reintroduce all these animals to Europe and EU and to investigate how would they affect the enviroment but it sure would be interesting

Any other animals that could be reintroduced - step by step as a replacement for Megafauna and its potential and theoretical pros and cons? How long do you think that this will take?

A captive escapee named "Pink Floyd" managed to survive in the American wilderness for over 17 years, being last sighted 2 years ago in Texas. There was also a flock of 5 flamingos seen last year, having presumably been blown from the Yucatán Peninsula into the state by Hurricane Idalia. In both cases, the birds don't seem to have affected their local ecosystems in any way, which begs the question: why hadn't flamingos colonized Texas beforehand?