This is interesting.

[--Pete]

Hi,

Cheetahs, lions, camels and elephants would roam wild in the United States under a new proposal to re-introduce large animals similar to those that humans hunted to extinction long ago.

Yeah, sure, you betcha. Look how well the reintroduction of grizzly bears and wolves has worked so far (I can hear the Wyoming rancher's screams here in Seattle).

Besides, ". . . humans hunted to extinction . . ." is only one theory of how those animals died. Climatic stress and changing environment are much more likely. Those same humans hunted the bejezus out of the buffalo and deer -- so much so that the 'surviving' members of those species formed herds that stretched to the horizon. Wasn't till the railroads put a bounty on those 'inconveniences' that the herds nearly disappeared. I don't think the people around at the time of those particular extinctions (of 'Cheetahs, lions, camels and elephants', that is) had Sharps rifles. I may be wrong, but I think the Clovis point preceded the Sharps ;)

--Pete