Game:

Planet Zoo (2019)

Duration: 2:35

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Here's some educational content provided by the game Planet Zoo on Species Reintroduction, which can be found on the information of its Conservation Education Boards.

Change of environmental conditions and/or overhunting can result in the eradication of a native species from its home range. This often happens as a direct result of human-lead processes. Species reintroduction attempts to bring back a species to its historical range, restore a stable population, and positively affect the surrounding environment.

Species reintroduction is a focus of conservation to secure survival of a species, but also to benefit ecosystems they were removed from. The removal of an animal from its ecological niche affects the food web, vegetation that grows, and puts other species at risk. Reintroducing a lost species can restore the natural balance and allow environmental recovery.

The extinction and successful reintroduction of European bison is one example of species reintroduction. Once widespread across Central Europe, they became extinct due to overhunting and habitat loss by 1927. Without the bison, more plants and trees were able to take root, slowly transforming the plains environments into scrubland or woodland. Naturally, this impacted other species relying on the plains. Efforts to reintroduce European bison began in the 1950s. In the Netherlands, bison were released into a dune ecosystem, growing into a stable population, also improving the environment. Their movements and dung aerate and fertilize the soil. Grazing limits overgrowth, which increases plant diversity. This benefits biodiversity of insects, mammals, and birds. At present, over 700 European bison live across Central Europe again.

However, reintroductions must be carefully managed. Sea otters in North America provide another example of species loss and reintroductions. Otters approached extinction by the early 1920s due to overhunting. Without otters, populations of their main prey, urchins, boomed, which in turn depleted kelp stocks. With the loss of kelp forests as habitat and food source, many fish and invertebrates could no longer survive. When the sea otter was reintroduced in Canada in 1969, balance was difficult to restore. Otter populations quickly exploded due to overwhelming prey availability, dramatically decreasing prey populations. This impacted other animals that relied upon them too, but also destabilized the otter population once more. Management of the situation is still in flux.

Videos used:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQYgCxu988s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8rzMUhn01o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc52l5ZcAJ0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNcH-PG5LTs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aY9QjlXaAAc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIG3rg5hQfo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9PeYPHdpNo

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