De-extinction of the Saber Toothed Cats

I'll admit, they lend a certain elegance to the landscape and do a good job of keeping the woolly mammoth herds in check. Still, I wonder about the wisdom of resurrecting an apex predator and putting it in a habitat where the apex predator is already in decline.

The saber-toothed cats have been placed in habitats where the predators, such as wolves, are no longer well established. The wolves will go after the woolly mammoths as quickly as the saber-toothed cats. The problem is that a pair of cats will chase the wolves away from their kills.

Another problem with the cats is that they go after the reindeer herds and herders. I read an article the other day that said reindeer herders in Mongolia, China, and Russia are dealing with this. The article went on to say that this issue is expected to be a problem in other countries where reindeer are herded.

None of the articles I've read about this subject, say which scientist resurrected the saber-tooted cats. All the articles take wild guesses, but no scientist will admit to being the culprit. One article even suggested that it was aliens from another planet that introduced the cats as a part of an invasion strategy. I don't buy the alien invasion idea. Whoever resurrected the saber-toothed cats wasn't thinking, or maybe they just didn't care.

WC 227