The African wild dogs are back.
There are just 14 of them, far fewer than those that roamed Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park before the nearly two-decade civil war that started in the 1970s.
As up to a million people lost their lives to violence and famine, much of the park's wildlife also was wiped out including the wild dogs, an endangered species vulnerable to snares and disease. Now they have been re-introduced to Gorongosa, carnivores unleashed on plant eaters as part of an intricate conservation project that aims to restore a diverse ecosystem at the southern end of Africa's Great Rift Valley.
It's complicated. Architects of the project a joint venture between a non-profit group founded by American philanthropist Greg Carr and the Mozambican government are wrestling with big picture ideas about what restoration even means in a world whose wild places face intensifying pressure from human encroachment and climate change.
"We can't go back to what exactly it was," said Marc Stalmans, science director at the 4,067-square-kilometer (1,570-square-mile) park. "Has the environment changed over the last 50 years in a way that certain previous states can no longer be attained?"
"So what comes back is something new," said Bobe, a Chilean who has also worked on paleontological projects in Kenya and Ethiopia. "You cannot go back in time, in a way. We see this in the fossil record, happening over and over again."
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