RE: NANFA-L-- Could Elephants Become an Envasive Species?

Crail, Todd (tcrail-in-UTNet.UToledo.Edu)
Thu, 18 Aug 2005 22:46:41 -0400

From: owner-nanfa-l-in-nanfa.org on behalf of Bruce Stallsmith
have any African species done well in these systems?

The Great Plains habitat I think is more akin to something found in Eurasia
with its seasonality-in-most latitudes. That's not to say there wasn't some
adaptability... I think elephants would be pushing it even in Texas though
and altitudes in Mexico might make it tough on them, though I'd hate to see
some Namibian stock get loose to see what they would do :)

Two domestics come to mind... The cow (the aruch, which was thought to be
extinct, but I now see otherwise on the web?) and the house cat (African wild
cat, interestingly named Felis sylvestris). But I'm not sure that counts as
"doing well" or "species". As far as plants go... There is one prominent
species that quickly comes to mind... Many of us drink percolated grindings of
its fruit every morning, and one invasive I'm okay with doing its thing :)
Again, pretty much domesticated away from the wild type.

However, I think what we were thinking of were African savanna species, which
are probably missing their habitat in North and Central America as similar
latitudes are mountainous (why coffee does well), incredibly wet and lush, or
incredibly dry year round thanks to the prevailing Hadley Cells and-in-which
latitude you find yourself), but would perhaps find the chapparal of Bolivia
and northern Uruguay quite hospitable on the other side of the coin? It would
be interesting to learn if this has occurred.

In addition... I've heard that a large ranch in Texas had tried to incorporate
white rhino to bust up mesquite thickets on their lands, which worked very
well. However, the species was unestablished, thankfully, in the wild, mainly
because... They _were_ rhinos and the ranchers quickly learned it was in their
best interest to try something else :)

Todd
The Muddy Maumee Madness, Toledo, OH
It's never too late to have a happy childhood.
http://www.farmertodd.com <http://www.farmertodd.com>
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