From Yahoo! News/AP — One scientist’s hobby: recreating the ice age
CHERSKY, Russia – Wild horses have returned to northern Siberia. So have musk oxen, hairy beasts that once shared this icy land with woolly mammoths and saber-toothed cats. Moose and reindeer are here, and may one day be joined by Canadian bison and deer.
Later, the predators will come — Siberian tigers, wolves and maybe leopards.
Russian scientist Sergey Zimov is reintroducing these animals to the land where they once roamed in millions to demonstrate his theory that filling the vast emptiness of Siberia with grass-eating animals can slow global warming.
Unlike “re-wilding” ideas in the United States (e.g. Montana), where most land is used for one thing or another, this one is along the Kolyma River (of gulag fame) in Siberia, which is about as isolated as one can get.
Isn’t this a little taste of what nature was meant to be, with the earth, sky, and sea “swarming with swarms of living creatures?” (Gen 1:20,24).
Grace and Peace
Related news: Leaking Siberian ice raises a tricky climate issue
GeoChristian 
I haven’t been able to track down much of any serious information on Zimov’s rationale, but I can’t see that it has any serious research to back it up, and several areas of research that tend to indicate his idea would have no effect, or even possibly the opposite effect.
If it is ever implemented, I predict total failure in its stated goals.
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Saber-toothed cats? I thought they were extinct. Where is he going to get them from – does he have a secret cloning project going on?
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I figured he was talking about what used to be in the area, not necessarily what he planned on stocking the area with right now. Though, come to think of it, without a major predator of some sort I would think herbivore populations would skyrocket (if they are viable in the location in the first place) and then crash from overgrazing and disease.
Would they have to institute a hunting practice to pare the herds down? How long do they think it would take to get herds to grow to sufficient size to start affecting the climate factors of the area? (if they could) Are those areas capable of sustaining large populations?
Lots and lots of questions.
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