Return of wolves to Yellowstone has led to a surge in aspen trees

Re:Return of wolves to Yellowstone has led to a surge in asp... by DiggyJohnson on Sunday July 27, 2025 @06:17PM (#44705233)

I’m usually the last person to take this side of a discussion but I don’t see how feasible since:

  - the existence species regeneration does not imply the incentivize to regenerate and manage the vast majority of extinct species  
  - lack of gene samples for vast majority of species  
  - we don’t and are not very close to having a viable model for environment and species fitness so we can’t accurately model what specifies to regenerate  
  - new species populations have to be managed before and after initial release 
  - land and labor capital investment

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Re:Return of wolves to Yellowstone has led to a surge in asp... by sdenton4 on Sunday July 27, 2025 @10:47PM (#44706736)

All completely correct.

It has been extremely difficult to reintroduce functionally extinct species (ie, regenrate populations in zoos, and then reintroduce them to their original habitat). The animal culture piece is really big.

But probably the biggest issue is that, in almost all cases, the problems that led to extinction in the first place - lack of habitat, poaching, etc - rarely get better with time.

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