"If we're serious about conserving the Pleistocene megafauna, then Africa and Asia offer us many opportunities to do that in a cost-effective way," he added.
The WWF scientist says the conservation record of the U.S. doesn't suggest it's a great place for preserving big, endangered mammals.
"African and Asian conservation agencies are doing a better job of conserving their mammals than we are," he said.
He points out that the U.S. is having problems enough in attempting to reestablish native mammals to their former ranges.
"Currently we are trying to reestablish mountain lions in places and are meeting serious opposition," he says. "And you could question whether the wolf reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park could ever have happened under the current [White House] administration."
"If we can't even conserve an endangered U.S. species like the tiger salamander, what about a lion or a tiger introduced to North American grasslands? The salamander's a little less threat to human life."
In an interview last week with National Geographic News, the rewilding plan's lead author, Josh Dolan, admitted that the project would "take a lot of work" to implement and to gain public support. But he and other proponents see long-term ecological and economical benefits to the plan.
"By having these large mammals on another continent besides Africa and Asia, we're preserving the evolutionary potential of large mammals," he said. "We also lay out what we see as the potential for economic justifications, the most obvious being ecotourism."
Rewilding With Native Species
If the so-named strategy of rewilding is to be successful in the Great Plains areas, Dinerstein argues, it should be done with North American species.
He cites the example of the American Prairie Foundation (a nonprofit set up by the WWF), which has purchased ranches in eastern Montana to use for conservation efforts. The foundation is to release its first herd of genetically pure bison in the next two months.
In the longer term Dinerstein hopes wolves and grizzly bears will also be reintroduced to the western prairie lands.
"We think of these as Rocky Mountain species, but that's only because they've been pushed out of their natural habitat," he said. "There used to be grizzly bears within 500 miles [800 kilometers] of Chicago several hundred years ago."
And unlike Asian elephants or African cheetahs, North American animals are equipped to survive the harsh winters of the Great Plains states without human help, he says.
Dinerstein believes bears, wolves, bison, and elk are the way to go if the goal is to restore the grandeur of the Pleistocene to the Great Plains.
"Safaris [in the U.S.] are a great idea, but let's do it with native American wildlife."
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