Rewilding through inappropriate species introduction:The case of European bison in Spain
Most European rewilding initiatives are based on the recovery of large herbi-vores, particularly European bison Bison bonasus, aiming at restoring ecosys-tem processes and increase trophic complexity. The growing support for therelease of bison as a wild species, and change its legal status, in Spai...
| Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | article |
| Status: | Published version |
| Publication Date: | 2024 |
| Country: | España |
| Institution: | Universidad de Sevilla (US) |
| Repository: | idUS. Depósito de Investigación de la Universidad de Sevilla |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:idus.us.es:11441/174202 |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/11441/174202 https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.13221 |
| Access Level: | Open access |
| Keyword: | Bison Ecological restoration Mediterranean Rewilding Species introduction |
| Summary: | Most European rewilding initiatives are based on the recovery of large herbi-vores, particularly European bison Bison bonasus, aiming at restoring ecosys-tem processes and increase trophic complexity. The growing support for therelease of bison as a wild species, and change its legal status, in Spain, as anecological analogue of the extinct steppe bison Bison priscus, makes it an excel-lent 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 differ-ences between both bison species, the Mediterranean environment, under thepresent and future climatic scenarios, does not suit the European bison. Fur-thermore, there is no evidence to support the presumption that the Europeanbison was ever present in the Iberian Peninsula, with legal implications. Weexpect that our approach will be inspirational for similar assessments onrewilding initiatives globally. |
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