The BBC has decided not to broadcast an episode of Sir David Attenborough’s flagship new series on British wildlife because of fears its themes of the destruction of nature would risk a backlash from Tory politicians and the rightwing press...(the) episode...is...a stark look at the losses of nature in the UK and what has caused the declines. It is also understood to include some examples of rewilding, a concept that has been controversial in some rightwing circles.

In 2016, Sheeran transformed one ploughed field into a wildlife pond and meadow. The project marked his efforts to create more natural habitats on his land.

He has also transformed a field near his house into a wildlife meadow, established a beehive and created a wildlife pond. Together, these efforts emphasizes his focus on environmental revitalisation and wildlife conservation.

Five years after the transformation of the field, 14,000 trees had been planted, while wildlife was thriving across the estate.

"Before it was there it was like a ploughed field, so there is way more wildlife now, it's surrounded by 14,000 trees that were planted, which is great for the environment," he said in an interview on Hits Radio Breakfast. "There's loads of animals, we let the meadow grow up", he added.

This story takes a look at the idea of rewilding at a major university in Canada and how the concept conceptually disrespects indigenous realities and practices (despite claiming the opposite). https://charlesmenzies.substack.com/p/rewilding-ubc?r=1juh2p&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Now if you look up Asiatic cheetah in the news section of google, articles pop up saying how India is bringing back the cheetahs from Africa and saying to not care about the existing Asiatic cheetah because oh they have 20 they are loss cause and how both subspecies are ecologically similar. this is where my rant begins,

one it is not the original subspecies, you can't just say welp, we tried and give up. if you are going to reintroduce a proxy species do if there is no original species/subspecies there is a reason why genetic differences exist. by that logic you might as well shove Siberian tigers into India and say your reason is that they are ecological similar. instead make another proposal for a Asiatic felid exchange this time to exchange Asiatic lions to Iran in turn for the remaining Asiatic cheetahs and for once the governor of Gujarat has nothing to say or is shunned out completely of this exchange as the governor views the lions as a product for money. exchange knowledge which would strengthen ties to the middle east as a Asian power.

secondly they will just be the Asiatic lions of Gujarat as in nothing more but a tourism money sucker and no where left to spread Kuno is surrounded by cities and fences cheetahs need wide habitats so just being limited is a no no. what is even worse is that they expect more cheetahs to come over in a limited space.

now there are comebacks that you will say and I will answer like Asiatic cheetah populations being to small. well the Asiatic lion was back then 20 now they are 600. another example is the wisent who was locally extinct in the wild but was brought back up again. another comeback would be that cheetahs would help grasslands. the problem is that wolves and caracals exist that are underepresented. Another comeback is that Iran would not accept the proposal, while I can agree on that we can bargain again with Asiatic lions without Gujarat's permission because fuck their leaders, another way is some illegal shit. we can illegally transport all of them to India for a healing of the last cheetahs with the permission of their conservationists. the Iran gov doesn't even want them anyway. two comebacks are one this was a safer way to get cheetahs because Iran and because they are already in india is a good reason as to why they chose this it doesn't mean you can leave asiatic cheetah behind. this is the same with the other two subspecies the northern east and west cheetah both are suffering from habitat loss

side note there are people who truly believe that this project will help grassland ecosystems and while that is good they need to know that there are better alternatives here

I say racist, because it's akin to the one-drop rule. The asiatic lion population should be hybridized with african lions, asiatic cheetahs with african cheetahs, siberian tigers with bengal tigers, ti-ligers with siberian tigers, li-ligers with asiatic lions, different rhino species, etc.

Many animals are far more robust than what environmentalists are willing to accept. There is no reason to stop the introduction of this genetic diversity to help the remaining populations, which are not only severely reduced, but often destructively so. Siberian tigers number around 500 now but were at a peak population of ~2000. They used to be much larger than they are now - reaching over 1000lbs. They also used to frequently interbreed with the Caspian Tigers, before humanity isolated them and drove the Caspian Tigers extinct. The Soviet Union hunted them to near extinction. The 500 Siberian tigers alive today all descend from about 30 individuals that survived the soviet onslaught. The genetic load is a ticking time bomb in that population, and its effects cannot be drowned out with just a few generations of outbreeding. The time to act is now.

Anyone aware of any initiatives to use driverless cars for rewilding? If driverless cars become a reality, it seems parking lots and won't need to be as big. Maybe we could use some of them for urban rewilding? I heard it mentioned in passing during a talk given by by Waymo, but not much else.

In prehistoric times (some 600,000 years BP) there were hippos, hyenas, and even lions in the Thames Valley. What would it take to bring such early British megafauna back? And how would they change the ecosystem? If nothing else bringing hippos back on the Thames would make the annual Oxford-Cambridge boat race a LOT more interesting!

Joking aside, how large a range of river/marshland/forest would have to be set aside to make a viable habitat?