HIGH-PROFILE efforts at reintroducing locally extinct species such as wolves
into Yellowstone National Park or condors into California may be intrinsically
flawed, according to a mathematical study by Finnish and Swedish
researchers.
Esa Ranta of the University of Helsinki and his colleagues modelled the
interactions between species in a community to find out what happens when
conservationists attempt to reintroduce a species that has died out. They found
that once a species vanishes from a habitat, the “doors” of that community may
shut permanently, preventing the species from ever coming back, says Ranta. A
proportion of the modelled reintroductions failed…
