If I was appalled when I first saw this headline – Lions and elephants on the Great Plains? – then I was especially shocked to read the lead sentence of the article: “If a group of prominent ecologists have their way, lions and elephants could someday be roaming the Great Plains of North America.” The clincher is the poll currently on CNN’s front page, where so far 44% of over 77,000 respondents support the idea (though I doubt many of them actually read the article).

The “ecological” argument behind the idea is that African megafauna might replace the North American megafauna that went extinct some 10-15,000 years ago. The definite cause of this mass extinction is unknown; though theories support both overhunting by native Americans and climatic change during the recession of the last glaciation (it’s likely that both were factors).

With regard to my staunch opposition to the idea, I’m primarily sympathetic to the ecological argument, best phrased in the article by University of Washington anthropologist Donald K. Grayson: “It is not restoration to introduce animals that were never here.” But since most Americans know lamentably little about ecology, I would think that the more effective argument would to be the economic one; even if Ted Turner foots the entire bill for introducing enough elephants and lions to support viable populations, I doubt very much that said animals care enough about private property rights to stay within the bounds of Turner’s ranches and off others’.

"Just when you think the world has gotten as weird as it can get, something like this comes along," said Steve Pilcher, executive vice president of the Montana Stockgrowers Association.

"I wonder how many calves or lambs it would take to feed a family of lions for a month?" Pilcher mused. "We sort of know what it takes for wolves, but something tells me we would be in a whole new ball game."