Large herbivorous animals, such as elephants, once roamed the forests of Europe, while hippos lived in the Thames and the Rhine. For this reason, to reconstruct the ancient European landscapes and enrich our ecosystem with a high level of biodiversity, we he might think about introducing animals such as wild cattle, bison and even elephants.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
Large herbivorous animals, such as elephants once roamed the forests of Europe, and hippos lived in the Thames and the Rhine. For this reason, to reconstruct the ancient European landscapes and enrich our ecosystem with a high level of biodiversity, we could think of introducing animals such as wild cattle, bison and even elephants.
The Danish scientists of theUniversity of Aarhus, who just published a major study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on fossils of dung beetles. It is they who show that temperate ecosystems consisted not only of dense forest, as is often thought, but rather of a mosaic of different landscapes, made of closed and semi-closed woods and parks.
In these landscapes i large animals, present in large numbers, they were an integral part of nature in prehistoric times. The composition of beetles in fossil sites tells us that the percentage and number of large wild animals has decreased after the appearance of modern man. As a result, the countryside took the place of the dense forest, cleared as man began to use the land for agriculture.
Bringing large animals back to Europe? “An important way to create more self-managed ecosystems with a high level of biodiversity is make room for large herbivores on the European scene. And eventually reintroduce animals such as wild cattle, bison and even elephants would create and maintain a varied vegetation in temperate ecosystems, and would provide the basis for a high level of biodiversity ", says Rasmus Ejrnæs, one of the authors.
Scientists therefore support the idea that a restoration of habitats to their natural state it should be incorporated to a much greater extent into environmental and nature policy in Europe, especially in the case of national parks and other large natural areas.
Roberta Ragni
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