Rewilding Australia

Rewilding Australia is the word for an ecological recreation effort aimed at the continued conservation of the native species of Australia. It incorporates ideas and propoals which are related to the similar projects in North America, Europe and Siberia. So far only the siberian project is in active operation. This project is known as Pleistocene Park.
Ecological history of Australia
When humans first settled Australia some 40.000 years ago, the biodiversity of the continent they encountered was very different from today. It was inhabited by large animals known today as the australian megafauna. Starting from the time around human habitation many of these large animals went extinct, including the marsupial lion, diprotodont and the large monitor lizardmegalania. The decline in large species also signalled the change in climate. Australia became drier, and the vast streches of forest was replaced by graslands and barren deserts. It was at this time that the present species of kangaroo spread out over the continent.
It was this dry and arrid Australia that the first Europeans encountered. The subsequent European colonisation of Australia created a new wave of extinctions which culminated with the extinction of the Thylacine in Tasmania during the 1930's.
At present the continent is very different from what it was before Europeans colonised it. Today the animals of the wilderness is a mixture of native species and species introduced by the Europeans. Large numbers of feral dromedary, european rabbit, feral dogs, red foxes, red deer and other species have had a negative impact on the local wildlife. In the north, introduced cane toad from South America has spelled disaster for multiple species of native animals in the Northern Territories and Queensland.

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