Extinct UK Animals You Really Wouldn't Want Back...

this channel is for rewilding we love the idea of restoring large areas for nature reproducing creatures like the beaver the bison and even the wolf but how would you feel about this fella or about this guy coming back to britain we're gonna look at whether if these and other natively extinct animals could make it in the uk today understanding their ecology the environment and how they lived why they're no longer here considering vast ecological time scales and how these animals evolved and live through them or indeed are still living through them and ultimately by contrast we'll look at the rapid impacts that humans can have in a relatively short amount of time to really drive these points home let's get started with the creature that's in the spotlight at the minute here in britain and that is the links [Music] the lynx went extinct in britain around 1300 years ago it would have been an apex predator hunting land mammals and birds of different shapes and sizes it's secretive predominantly a woodland specialist that hunts by stalking and ambushing its prey it's about the size of a labrador a very cat-like labrador and i just love the little tufts on the tops of its ears populations across mainland europe have been increasing thanks to decades of the rewilding movement reintroductions and new laws have been supporting the links like never before with many countries now respecting and understanding their role within a balanced ecosystem seeing the links as an asset and putting them at the heart of nature-based businesses that generate millions every year so why did the links go extinct in the uk well the short answer is people either directly through hunting or indirectly through habitat destruction with the lynx either being seen as a nuisance that killed livestock or a trophy kill during hunting so can or even should the links make a comeback to the uk well yes it certainly can happen and wildlife enthusiasts will tell you well they'll say why isn't it happening if there's been such great success between links and people already in europe enough suitable habitat and prey has been identified here in the uk so it does make you think why isn't it happening before any reintroduction you have to of course have answers to the following question which is are the reasons for extinction still there because if they are then there's no point in reintroducing that species and in the case of the links i would say ever so slightly although perceptions have been changing a lot over the past 20 30 50 years the main point of conflict and rightly so is from landowners particularly livestock farmers if these concerns are addressed with proper mitigation a linkspring introduction and all of its benefits could be right around the corner for the uk all right you're up north in the far reaches of scotland and out of nowhere you hear this great crashing and thundering sound there's a tree coming down you hear this exhaling of air that sounds like it's coming from a long rubbery tube yeah you guessed it woolly mammoths they went extinct in the uk around 10 000 years ago and evidence shows that they would have been found across the uk they were about the size of african elephants except of course they're covered in a dense fur coat and would have favored tundra conditions and grasslands so a couple of fossil hunters known as sally and neville hollingsworth i just love their names they're just such british names they found five mammoths in the cotswolds last year dated to be around 200 000 years old sadly woolly mammoths are not alive today anywhere on earth although humans would have lived at the same time as mammoths and they would have hunted them man is not the reason for their extinction it was climate change that got the mammoths the melting of ice and increased rainfall meant that their main food sources were wiped out so the first question to ask is isn't should we bring woody mammoths back to the uk but can we there are organizations that want to and believe they'll be able to bring the mammoth back well it actually won't be a woolly mammoth they can't just like create willy mammoths it will be a genetically engineered version of the african elephant it'll be fluffy and it'll be able to survive in tundra arctic conditions as crazy as this sounds this is possible and it's also very exciting because it will do a lot of good to the degraded arctic landscapes but how about the uk could woolly mammoth if they ever came back could they survive here in the uk well the answer is sadly no we just don't have the right conditions for for woolly mammoths the closest place that you would get is in the further reaches of scotland in the kangaroos this next species would have lived alongside wooly mammoths here in britain and they certainly would have given humans a thing or two to think about cave lions they lived in the uk up until 14 000 years ago these would have been much bigger than the lions that we see in africa today and their bite would have had twice the strength weighing around 40 stone which is about 250 kilograms they were the very definition of apex predators hunting the woolly mammoth and other large herbivores of its time unfortunately or perhaps fortunately depending on who you are um cave lions aren't alive today but the real cause for their extinction is debated like the woolly mammoth a changing climate a warming climate would have certainly have affected cave lions but evidence shows that cave lions declined around the same time that humans were making advancements across the landscape so would cave lions if they still existed or if they were genetically engineered imagine that genetically engineered apex predators would they make it in the uk today well i mean there's certainly enough food for them the habitat would probably work for them they're not going to be too fussy but i mean if we're stalling or reintroducing a cuddly little lynx how do you think a cave line will go down all right so while we're on big scary predators this next one will definitely give benny the cockapoo a thing or two to think about in the local park and i'm talking crocodiles yet the world's largest reptilian lived in the uk around 120 000 years ago during a warm interglacial period and it was a changing climate that drove the crocs out of britain as they rely on warmer waters to incubate their eggs so shall we reintroduce crocs to the uk well sadly no our waters just aren't warm enough for them but potentially with rising sea levels and a warming climate crocs just might make it back to the uk alright okay crocodiles was a little bit of a wild card let's bring it back to a creature that is surviving and indeed thriving in many parts of the world the wolf went extinct in the uk around 400 years ago which by comparison to the other species so far is extremely recent wolves live in packs and they have strong family dynamics they predate herbivores and they can live in a range of different habitats wolves have been villainized in recent human history and this led to their extinction in britain and very nearly across europe and america globally populations are growing thanks to modern ecological understanding of a wharf's role in the ecosystem wolves have been afforded greater protections and their presence has been encouraged through reintroductions however reintroducing wolves to the uk much like the lynx is a hotly debated topic and much like the lynx the reasons for extinction are still in place and i think with the wolf they're there just a little bit more whether if it's due to their misrepresentation as a body or maybe it's because they've got sharp teeth and they work in packs wolves are feared not just by livestock farmers but by many people and until people can understand and most importantly experience wolves and other apex predators their return to the uk is just gonna have to wait leaning on naturally from the wolf we have the brown bear the last bear was killed around a thousand years ago in britain and yes you guessed it it was due to humans relentless persecution and the reduction of forests just meant that bears couldn't survive but thankfully we know that the brown bear is alive today and in countries such as romania and europe they're actually thriving but if the bear was to be reintroduced to the uk how do you think it would go down what kind of reception do you think the bear would get where would it go well it would go to the further reaches in scotland again this is the place where you would reintroduce most apex predators purely because it's got a low population density that's referring to humans and it's also as wild and as big as it gets here in the uk you'll notice that many of these huge time scales that have been thrown up of when these animals went extinct far extend the lifetimes of humans 200 years 400 years 600 a thousand a hundred thousand years very large time scales and it's these time scales which i think that humans struggle to comprehend because we live within the bubble of our own lives but let's just try and think about what 200 years passing it is like i mean that's a bloody long time but ecologically and evolutionary that's just a blink of an eye that's a shudder in time not much can happen it's not enough time for the climate to naturally shift that leads to some of these extinctions but when you consider the lifetime of a human 100 years 80 years 50 years 25 years even a decade that's enough time for humans to have their imprint to the planet the scale and rate of change that man has to the natural world is staggering terrifying but it's also reassuring it's reassuring to know that if the right decisions are made we can move towards a better planet for all life just as quickly as things can be changed for the worse they can be changed for the better subscribe if you're interested in wildlife and if you're even more curious join us over on patreon youtube reckons that you want to watch this video next but in the meantime thank you so much for watching leave curious by the way it feels really good to be back um i had a baby i had a newborn baby recently so it's meant that i've been a little bit out of action but i'm back

Channel: Leave Curious

Views: 11,637

Keywords: rewilding britain, rewilding britain reintroduction, rewilding britain lynx, rewilding britain lynx reintroduction, rewilding britain wolf reintroduction

Id: AGmmuFHTLJ4

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 21 2022