Introduced mammals and models for restoration

It is in the nature of today's world that interventionist, rather than protectionist, management strategies are likely to be in greater demand, because an enormous area of the earth's habitable surface has already been transformed by human action. [Holdgate, M.W., 1986. Summary and conclusions: characteristics and consequences of biological invasions. In: Kornberg, H., Williamson, M.H. (Eds), Quantitative aspects of the ecology of biological invasions. The Royal Society, London, pp. 733-742] Progress with ecological restoration in New Zealand is reviewed. A useful goal for restoration is that of rebuilding, as far as possible, the evolutionary and ecological context of species in the system, i.e. reinstating earlier selection regimes. Opportunities for restoring biological components of these regimes are greater than those available for restoring physical conditions. In this country, effective ecological restoration is not possible without control or eradication of introduced mammals. Descriptive models of systems to be restored are also a necessity for achieving goals. A particular problem is that caused by past extinctions of animal species. Replacement of some extinct species, within particular trophic guilds, with ecologically appropriate and related extant species, is suggested as a possible response to this problem. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.