Its not exactly African but its an interesting idea. I have said the same thing about rhinos.

http://www.nationalreview.com/...hants-josh-gelernter


A few weeks ago, a gigantic, 45-year-old African elephant named Satao was killed by ivory poachers. Satao, a beloved pachyderm legend, was discovered in a mutilated heap; he had been killed by poison arrows and butchered for his gigantic tusks. This year, Satao will be one of about 30,000 elephants destroyed, in a declining population of just 500,000. Black-market ivory evidently goes for $1,300 a pound, and the price is rising as Asia becomes richer: In the Orient, ground ivory is used to make a popular placebo medication, and, according to the Telegraph, Chinese decorating traditions credit ivory with the power to “disperse misfortune and drive out evil spirits.”

Things are even worse for Asia’s indigenous elephants; there are only 30,000 left. Unlike their African cousins, only the males grow tusks, so the ivory trade is severely depleting the XY end of the gene pool. And with Asia’s large and fertile population of people, additional elephants are killed each year in run-ins with their counterpart indigenous humans, as elephant migratory routes take them through villages and over highways.
Asian and African elephants are the only remaining genera of the family Elephantidae; there used to be more than a dozen. And four of those used to roam, in great herds, around North America.

The mastodon, along with the largest of the elephants — the stegodon — and the woolliest — the mammoth — died out quite recently, about 10,000 years ago. Isolated pockets of mammoths were still alive 4,000 years ago when Greek civilization was beginning on Crete. These elephants were done in by post-Pleistocene climate change and hungry, hungry humans. And ivory was valuable then, too.

So, overhunting did in our ancestral American elephants. Just as it did in our bison. But our bison are back. Why not bring back the elephants?

In the 1980s, when political strife threatened Africa’s Jews, Israel airlifted them, en masse, to Israel. Far be it from me to compare (my fellow) Jews to elephants; this isn’t a perfect metaphor. But airlifting some elephants to our National Parks System would solve some big problems.

The species could be saved. African elephants aren’t doing well; Asian elephants are on their last legs. And America needs elephants: They don’t always do well in zoos, and captive breeding is far below the rate of replacement.

We have climates for elephants — in the southwestern desert, the southeastern forests, and the great plains in between. We have the space, and I don’t doubt we have the required enthusiasm; Americans love animals. Carefully and selectively introducing elephants to these United States might seem like a radical notion, but in the end, the choice will boil down to this: We can let elephants dwindle toward extinction, or we can watch herds of them sweep across the fruited plain.

Write to your congressman.

Not a bad idea.

quote:

Originally posted by poprivit:
Not a bad idea.

Until an entire ecosystem gets transformed by an introduced species that can be wide ranging and destructive.

Certainly one way to beat the poachers but not easy and not cheap to achieve.

quote:

We can let elephants dwindle toward extinction, or we can watch herds of them sweep across the fruited plain.

Write to your congressman.

Uncool.

If this happens we'll have the same BS that's happening with "wild" horses. There are no wild horses in the USA, just feral horses that need to be eradicated to give big horn sheep, deer, elk, antelope back their grub and space. The reasoning behind the "wild" vs. "feral" from the eco-idiot view point is that some form of prehistoric horses were on our continent until just recently, like a few 10,000 years ago so, see?, they're now wild instead of feral. Plus they're really photogenic and look romantic, so they're wild. But pigs are feral...

Yes, I'm on the dumb end and feed a rescued feral horse every day. he's a good pasture pal to our other horse. As soon as that ends he'll wind up as dog food.

quote:

Originally posted by 505 gibbs:

quote:

We can let elephants dwindle toward extinction, or we can watch herds of them sweep across the fruited plain.

Write to your congressman.

We always consider the source-

Unworkable in my opinion. Elephants, well, they are elephants, and while highly intelligent, they don't get things like property boundries. They also are pretty hard on fences.

Then there is our tort system. So anyone who would allow elephants to exist on their property in the U.S. would stand to lose it all the first time an elephant behaved like an elephant.

Not a viable plan.

yea, i was wondering who is going to pay to put an electric fence around our various national parks....not to mention the cost of air shipping the critters here. this is probably the stupidest idea i have seen in a LOOOONG time.

At what point do they become huntable & who makes that decision? USFWS?
Kinda like the reintroduction of wolves, there was a reason they were wiped out by our ancestors.
Sorry, but I don't see this happening.

Probably have to fly them there in a .... wait for it... Jumbo

I can't imagine the environment would be enriched by elephant. better to address the problem of poaching, human encroachment - habitat destruction.

quote:

Originally posted by mt Al:
Uncool.

If this happens we'll have the same BS that's happening with "wild" horses. There are no wild horses in the USA, just feral horses that need to be eradicated to give big horn sheep, deer, elk, antelope back their grub and space. The reasoning behind the "wild" vs. "feral" from the eco-idiot view point is that some form of prehistoric horses were on our continent until just recently, like a few 10,000 years ago so, see?, they're now wild instead of feral. Plus they're really photogenic and look romantic, so they're wild. But pigs are feral...

Yes, I'm on the dumb end and feed a rescued feral horse every day. he's a good pasture pal to our other horse. As soon as that ends he'll wind up as dog food.

I live in the epicenter of this lunacy! Northern Nevada with its fragile desert/step environment is the home to the largest FERAL horse populations. They get protected, while our true wildlife suffers.

First we need to eradicate liberals, all of them...no zoos with a few mating pairs, then we need to eradicate the FERAL horse from North America.

Imagine what these demented liberals would do if they had a herd of elephants!

I wonder what sort of medication the person who came up with this is on?

With the price of ivory these days, putting transplanted eles into the desert Southwest would make them a target for the cartels. They could smuggle drugs or humans north, then smuggle the poached ivory south, eliminating deadheading!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
I wonder what sort of medication the person who came up with this is on?

HUMAN ARROGANCE, Just like the clowns in the Obama administration that decided to attack the future of the elephant in Africa.

Dang I got a half million in ivory