FAR from home in a remote region of Australia roams the world’s largest herd of a wild, pure-bred species of threatened Indonesian cattle. The banteng’s overseas success suggests that introducing endangered exotic species into other countries might be a feasible option for conservation, though there will always be ecological risks associated, says Corey Bradshaw of Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia.
In Asia there are fewer than 5000 wild, pure-strain banteng (Bos javanicus), living in small populations. Their range has declined by 85 per cent in the past 15 to 20 years, and the World Conservation Union lists the species as “severely threatened”. Importantly for conservation efforts, analysis of the Australian herd’s mitochondrial and nuclear DNA by Bradshaw and colleagues shows the animals to be pure-strain wild banteng (Conservation Biology, vol 20, p 1306).
The Australian herd sprang from 20 banteng introduced in 1849, and now stands at 6000, of which hunters pay to shoot around 40 males each year. Until now it was not known whether the herd was pure-bred, and so potentially deserving of conservation, or whether the animals had interbred with other species. The work shows that populations of a large threatened species can be established outside their native ranges.
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Last year, a team led by Harry Greene of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, suggested introducing African and Asian species such as lions and elephants to the western US to replace megafauna wiped out during the Pleistocene 13,000 years ago (Nature, vol 436, p 913). “We need to carefully consider bold, even risky new approaches to conservation in the face of our worsening global extinction crisis,” Greene says.
Australia also lost its megafauna during the Pleistocene. “Introducing endangered herbivores back into the system might have a lot of ecological benefits,” says Bradshaw. “It would require a lot of research, and we would have to be extremely careful, but I think it could be done.”
To succeed, new colonies of threatened species would probably have to be commercial ventures, the team thinks. Safari hunting could be one way to make such a project realistic. “Generally, people don’t see the value in things unless they can see a direct economic benefit,” Bradshaw says.
