Deleted member 67076
With a POD after 1000 BC, is there any way to establish an elephant population in any part of Europe that survives to this day?
With a POD after 1000 BC, is there any way to establish an elephant population in any part of Europe that survives to this day?
Sweet. What POD would that require for places like Greece and Macedonia?Longer lasting Carthaginian presence in Iberia should do the trick. After Pyrrhus, they started to really utilize elephants in their warfare. Have a couple escape and roam around, you've got an elephant population in Spain.
It's also possible to get them to Sicily, Greece, Macedonia/Thrace, and possibly Italy by similar means. Have some war-elephants bought and brought over, they escape into the wild, and there you go.
Though I'd think that much like the lions of Berberia or the Auroach's they'd eventually end up being hunted to extinction.
To have a stable population would require Human intervention and propogation, so I don't think they'd suffer that fate.
At least in Spain, Sicily and GreeceIs any part of Europe even capable of supporting any extant species of elephant? I would guess that's the first thing to address - if they can't survive there as-is, you'd need to somehow change that, first (if it's possible).
Again, I'm not really sure if they can or not, it just strikes me as unlikely.
Is any part of Europe even capable of supporting any extant species of elephant? I would guess that's the first thing to address - if they can't survive there as-is, you'd need to somehow change that, first (if it's possible).
Again, I'm not really sure if they can or not, it just strikes me as unlikely.
I'd think you'd need some sort of religious/deep cultural prohibition against killing them for them to stand a chance.
what about the islands ? Corsica, Sardinia, Sicily, Crete, Malta, Majorca, Minorca, Canaries ? could they support elephant ? local tradition by insular people that respect elephant in under-populated island could contribute to survival.
Another option is swamp. Venetian Lagoon ? The Fens ? with elephant stay at the swamp and not disturb farmer, they more likely to survive. if the swamp had malaria it might even give better chance.
Actually they could probably survive in the more sparsely populated regions of Europe. The problem is that given the European climate the more sparsely populated regions are less likely to be able to support a stable elephant population. As you say, where more populated human and elephant ranges cross the pressures can get quite high. Wild Elephants are bad neighbours- they lay waste to crops and will seek out alcohol for booze fueled drunked rages. Of course this is based on what I know of Asian elephants- I'd imagine African elephant populations would be even more cranky.