Species protection, habitat conservation, captive breeding and reintroductions are having a positive effect on large mammal numbers in Europe. Large carnivores such as the brown bear, lynx and grey wolf all have stable or increasing populations. Of course everything is relative. All of these species faced near extinction by the mid 20th century. Europe is home to 740 million people and the lanscape has been intensively altered for centuries. Nevertheless, people are learning to co-exist with large mammals and they are learning to recolonize areas abandoned by humans as their population becomes increasingly urban. Urban populations across europe are expected to increase by 16% up to 2045; conversely there has been a 28% in rural populations since the 1960s. Many animal (15%) reptile (19%) and bird species still face extinction, however.
A study conducted by 76 carnivore specialists in Europe points out that the European model of conservation differs from the North American one. America tends to concentrate on conserving remaining wilderness areas separated from areas of human habitation, whereas the European approach is to allow humans and predators to co-exist in the same landscape where precious little true wilderness is extant. This approach requires compromise between human needs and carnivores' needs, but it seems to be working. Europe has twice as many wolves--more than 11,000--than the United States where wolves are still persecuted. European brown bears, who are 17,000 individuals, are the most abundant large predator on the continent.
European bison
(Bison bonasus) is a leading example of what captive breeding programs can do to help restablish an extirpated native population of large mammals. The only surviving member of megafauna from the Pleistocene once occupied Europe from France to Ukraine, up to the north shore of the Black Sea. Extinction occurred from west to east beginning in the 15th century. The last wild populations survived in the Caucasus until 1927. After that 54 captives with known ancestors remained. Today because of breeding efforts and reintroductions the bison survives in 33 separate wild populations totaling an estimated 2759 individuals. The largest population of 850 is in the Bialowieza Primeval Forest staddling the border between Poland and Belarus.
{08.05.13, European Bison Roam Free} The future of the bison looks good if collaborative efforts to increase their range and provide more habitat where farmland is being abandoned such as in the Carpathians meets with success. The species remains at risk due to low genetic diversity and poaching.
Brown bear
(Ursus arctos) is Europe's second largest mammalian predator after the Polar bear. Since the Pleistocene, brown bears have ranged over Europe, but suffered drastic declines in number during the 19th century due to deforestation and human predation or persecution. By 1955 it occupied only 37% of its former range, loosing the majority of its range in Southern and Western Europe. By 2008 due primarily to hunting controls and legal protections the bear has doubled in number over the last 45 years and increased its range to 41% of its historical distribution. Without doubt there is deep-rooted fear towards a preditor as large as a brown bear in areas from which they have been absent for centuries. Bruno, the first brown bear to return to Bavaria in 170 years, was shot dead in 2006 after complaints were received about his fearless behavior. His brother JJ was killed in Switzerland in 2008 apparently for similar reasons. Some reintroduction programs such as in the French Pyrenees have been abandoned after local protests. Poaching continues to be a problem for the species. Romania, home to a quarter of Europes' brown bears, is experiencing an increase in poaching. Poaching was also the caused the extirpation of reintroduced bears in the Northern Limestone Alps of Austria. Lack of cooperation between national management agencies and lack of public acceptance of a large carnivore's proximity pose problems to complete brown bear recovery.
The
"rewilding" of Europe is an exciting and hopeful development which demonstrates that modernity can insure a place for the other creatures living on this planet. Not only is maintaining wild populations of other animals a benefit to humans, as the dominant species on Earth it is our moral duty to do so.
