# Can African lions and elephants survive an American mid-west winter? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 18, 2005, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-african-lions-and-elephants-survive-an-american-mid-west-winter/317505 "2005-08-18T00:26:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-african-lions-and-elephants-survive-an-american-mid-west-winter/317505/41 "2005-08-25T23:11:51Z")
> [@levdrakon](#): > > That Terror Bird looks like good eatin’. And imagine the turducken you could make out of that thing. Madden might keel over. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2005, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-african-lions-and-elephants-survive-an-american-mid-west-winter/317505/42 "2005-08-25T23:20:55Z")
> [@asterion](#): > > And imagine the turducken you could make out of that thing. Madden might keel over. Yeah, but you would need to stuff it with an Ostrich, an Emu, and a Rhea before you got down to the turkey. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-african-lions-and-elephants-survive-an-american-mid-west-winter/317505/43 "2005-08-26T01:20:07Z")
**Colibri,** let’s not go [there](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=4913921#post4913921) again. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-african-lions-and-elephants-survive-an-american-mid-west-winter/317505/44 "2005-08-26T08:48:59Z")
Yuh-huh. You said it much better than I did. North America has changed since 10 000 years ago and this “Well, similar things lived here ten thousand years ago so they can’t possibly do any harm!” sort of thinking is even worse to my mind than the “Let’s swallow this bird to catch the fly” thinking that led to the Australian cane toads and other regrettable decisions. ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-african-lions-and-elephants-survive-an-american-mid-west-winter/317505/45 "2005-08-26T08:50:37Z")
Oh… nuts. I was responding to Chronos. I don’t know what happened to the quoted text. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2005, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-african-lions-and-elephants-survive-an-american-mid-west-winter/317505/46 "2005-08-26T09:35:20Z")
> [@The article](#): > > Better than rats > One justification for “rewilding,” as the scientists call it, is that one way or another, we humans have a dramatic effect on the animal kingdom and ecology in general, so a proactive approach is better than letting the world go to the dogs. Or, in this case, to the rats. > > In the absence of elephants and large predators, which together stomp the ground and keep other animals on the run, landscapes will come to be dominated by **dandelions, rats and other undesirables** , the scientists write. Other undesirables indeed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-african-lions-and-elephants-survive-an-american-mid-west-winter/317505.md?page=2)