Time to Move the Bears?

Not quite yet—but species may be moved as warming ruins habitats
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 25, 2007 5:27 PM CST
Time to Move the Bears?
Royal Bengal tigress Krishna sits with her cubs at the Alipore Zoological Garden in Calcutta, India, in this May 17, 2005 file photo. China is seeking Indian support for plans to farm tigers for their body parts, Indian officials said Thursday, May 17, 2007, expressing opposition to a move that conservationists...   (Associated Press)

Airlifting polar bears to the Antarctic? Luring man-eating tigers out from a forest in Bangladesh? Such ideas are in the air, as biologists debate whether to move embattled species to areas less warmed by CO2. But critics say that "cowboy environmentalists" are flouting the rules—and endangering cooler habitats—by talking species relocation. 

“We need to have the conversation now, because it will probably take a decade to reach some consensus," one biologist told Der Spiegel. "It's going to be a train wreck if we wait for species to start going extinct." And there isn't much time: A Nature study has warned that two in three species will have to relocate by 2050 to survive. (More climate change stories.)

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