One scientist's hobby: recreating the ice age ecosystem

By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press – Sun Nov 28, 8:39 am ET

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.


"Some people have a small garden. I have an ice age park. It's my hobby," says Zimov, smiling through his graying beard. His true profession is quantum physics.

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101128/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_ice_age_park

He'd be better-off skipping American bison, and instead trying to get a few wisent.