Prominent Ecologists Want to Move Elephants to North America

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DENVER, COLORADO, August 18, 2005: After publishing his team’s proposal in a recent issue of Nature, Cornell University ecologist, Josh Donlan, has had to stand his ground. Donlan has proposed that certain African species, including elephants, that are close to extinction as a result of diminishing habitats could be relocated to North America. CNN founder, Ted Turner, who owns large pieces of land including huge ranches in several states, has already allowed ecologists to reintroduce the Bolson tortoise on his New Mexico ranch, a 155,000 acre property in the foothills of the Gila mountains. This article explains that this property contains a mix of ecosystems ranging from desert grasslands to pine forests. Donlan and other supporters of his theory have surmised the following, “The relocated animals could restore the biodiversity in North America to a condition closer to what it was before humans overran the landscape more than 10,000 years ago. Most modern African species never lived on the American prairie. But some of their biological cousins like mastodons, camels and saber-toothed cats, roamed for more than 1 million years alongside antelope and herds of bison until Ice Age glaciers retreated and humans started arriving.”