Quote Originally Posted by Banquo's Ghost View Post
Relict populations of large mammals tend to die out pretty rapidly precisely because of this lack of a viable population.
What would you consider to be a viable population? Would 500 be enough?

It's kind difficult to get your head around how much unexplored area there is here in British Columbia. I live in what you might consider a fairly populated part of the province and even still I can get in my truck, drive for 1 hour, get out and walk into the woods for 30 minutes, and literally within that 90 minutes be standing in a place where no human being has ever stood before. -For someone who's not from here it might be hard to relate to, but it's unimaginably vast wilderness out here.

Here's a good example: in BC during the past 70 years over 50 aircraft (the majority of which with flight plans filed) have crashed and been lost WITHOUT A TRACE, and that's despite some spirited searches by highly-trained search and rescue personnelle.

If we have 50 aircract somewhere out in the BC wilderness with no trace, I'd suggest that we could easily have 500 large animals out in there with no trace.