TY - JOUR
T1 - Rewilding through inappropriate species introduction
T2 - The case of European bison in Spain
AU - Nores, Carlos
AU - Álvarez-Laó, Diego
AU - Navarro, Alberto
AU - Pérez-Barbería, Francisco Javier
AU - Castaños, Pedro María
AU - de la Fuente, Jone Castaños
AU - Muñiz, Arturo Morales
AU - Azorit, Concepción
AU - Muñoz-Cobo, Joaquín
AU - Fernández Delgado, Carlos
AU - Granado Lorencio, Carlos
AU - Palmqvist, Paul
AU - Soriguer, Ramón
AU - Delibes, Miguel
AU - Vilà, Montserrat
AU - Simón, Miguel
AU - Cabezudo, Baltasar
AU - Galán, Carmen
AU - García-Berthou, Emili
AU - Almodóvar, Ana
AU - Elvira, Benigno
AU - Curiel, Pedro Brufao
AU - Casinos, Adriá
AU - Herrero, Juan
AU - Blanco, Juan Carlos
AU - García-González, Ricardo
AU - Nogués-Bravo, David
AU - Margalida, Antoni
AU - Fisher, Brendan
AU - Arlettaz, Raphaël
AU - Gordon, Iain J.
AU - Ludwig, Arne
AU - Lovari, Sandro
AU - Cook, Brian D.
AU - Carranza, Juan
AU - Csányi, Sándor
AU - Apollonio, Marco
AU - Kowalczyk, Rafał
AU - Demarais, Steve
AU - López-Bao, José Vicente
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Conservation Science and Practice published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Society for Conservation Biology.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Most European rewilding initiatives are based on the recovery of large herbivores, particularly European bison Bison bonasus, aiming at restoring ecosystem processes and increase trophic complexity. The growing support for the release of bison as a wild species, and change its legal status, in Spain, as an ecological analogue of the extinct steppe bison Bison priscus, makes it an excellent example to reflect the limits of a rewilding biogeographically advisable. We discuss if this initiative could be justified from ecological, biogeographical, ethical, and legal reasons. Besides remarkable taxonomic and functional differences between both bison species, the Mediterranean environment, under the present and future climatic scenarios, does not suit the European bison. Furthermore, there is no evidence to support the presumption that the European bison was ever present in the Iberian Peninsula, with legal implications. We expect that our approach will be inspirational for similar assessments on rewilding initiatives globally.
AB - Most European rewilding initiatives are based on the recovery of large herbivores, particularly European bison Bison bonasus, aiming at restoring ecosystem processes and increase trophic complexity. The growing support for the release of bison as a wild species, and change its legal status, in Spain, as an ecological analogue of the extinct steppe bison Bison priscus, makes it an excellent example to reflect the limits of a rewilding biogeographically advisable. We discuss if this initiative could be justified from ecological, biogeographical, ethical, and legal reasons. Besides remarkable taxonomic and functional differences between both bison species, the Mediterranean environment, under the present and future climatic scenarios, does not suit the European bison. Furthermore, there is no evidence to support the presumption that the European bison was ever present in the Iberian Peninsula, with legal implications. We expect that our approach will be inspirational for similar assessments on rewilding initiatives globally.
KW - Bison
KW - ecological restoration
KW - Mediterranean
KW - Rewilding
KW - species introduction
U2 - 10.1111/csp2.13221
DO - 10.1111/csp2.13221
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85209630152
VL - 6
JO - Conservation Science and Practice
JF - Conservation Science and Practice
SN - 2578-4854
IS - 12
M1 - e13221
ER -