Rewilding is a transformative conservation strategy that emphasises the restoration of ecological processes and ecosystem resilience. This perspective article addresses limitations in current rewilding monitoring practices, which predominantly rely on quantitative metrics. We argue for the integration of qualitative approaches to better capture the complexity and interdependence of human–nature interactions that shape rewilding outcomes. Drawing on social–ecological systems (SES) thinking, we propose a holistic monitoring framework that combines quantitative and qualitative measures. This approach reflects emerging shifts in conservation mindsets – recognising humans as part of nature, valuing biodiversity intrinsically as well as instrumentally, and embracing uncertainty and complexity over control. We suggest that Holling’s panarchy – a framework for understanding adaptive cycles and cross-scale interactions – can support the design of rewilding interventions and guide monitoring. By focusing on fast- and slow-changing variables, panarchy enhances adaptive management and supports context-sensitive theories of change. This article contributes to the rewilding discourse by offering practical guidance for practitioners and policymakers, promoting a shift towards inclusive, adaptive and transformative monitoring practices.

Preventing human-caused extinctions is a foundational aim of conservation. However, in addition to causing extinctions, humans have moved numerous species to new areas. A considerable percentage of these are threatened in their native ranges. Broadening our conservation ethos to include introduced species is contentious and requires critical thinking in empirical and normative dimensions to negotiate between conflicting conservation goals. Here, we present a series of questions to inspire critical thinking in the negotiation of these conflicts. Empirically, we suggest that conservationists should consider whether the effects of introduced species are due to their non-nativeness per se or are simply a consequence of the organism having a metabolism and taking up space. Importantly, this requires proper scientific comparison to the effects of similar native organisms – otherwise many claims of ‘harm’ are unfalsifiable and could be used to justify the eradication of any organism. We further propose questions to help conservationists sort facts from normative values, which often wear empirical clothes. Through empirical rigor, value transparency and critical justification of these values, we believe that twenty- first century conservation can become a future-facing and pluralistic discipline with a heightened ability to prevent extinctions in an increasingly unpredictable and novel biosphere.

Early human cultural dynamics underpin the Plio-Pleistocene archaeological record and impact how we understand some of our earliest identifiable behaviours. One major outstanding question is whether Early Stone Age material culture represents a single lineage of cultural information, or did we ever lose the knowledge required to make stone tools? No single approach satisfactorily addresses this problem, but to date, objective analyses of temporal data have been absent from the conversation. Here, using a comprehensive database of dated African Oldowan archaeological sites, we demonstrate that there are no temporal breaks large enough, on a relative basis, to infer a loss of stone-tool-making cultural information. Therefore, alongside previously published data, we infer a continuous record of early human stone tool production in Africa from c. 3.3 to 1.5 million years ago. Stone tool-associated behavioural adaptations and evolutionary selective pressures were, therefore, likely to have been ever present during this period.

This article centres a poem concerned with the de-extinction of the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) to make a wider claim for the importance of poetry as a distinct contribution to thinking about de-extinction. While de-extinction is well understood as a scientific practice, it is also a cultural event. It involves communities with distinct histories who are diversely invested in the idea of extinction, which evoke a range of emotions and embodied responses. A poetry of de-extinction is well placed to situate the science within its complex cultural history while evoking the resistance and multiple temporalities of recorded Indigenous experience. In the instance of the efforts towards the de-extinction of the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), the colonial acts that led to the original extinction were one part of the violence perpetrated against Indigenous peoples and country.

Scientists still debate whether small groups of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers caused the extinction of large Ice Age animals like prehistoric elephants, giant sloths and cave lions. Beyond paleontology, this question has deep sociological implications and is relevant for how we understand the role of humankind in today’s environmental crisis. A human-driven megafauna extinction has often fostered the idea of a naturalization of human environmental impacts and the belief that all people (modern or ancient, rich or poor, from any part of the world) share responsibility for the current crisis. But is that true? In the review, I discuss whether a long evolutionary history of impacts really makes us inevitably destructive, compelling humanity to accept a devastating anthropocentric dominance as the fateful destiny natural selection built for us. In contrast, I argue that, while our exceptional ability to shape environments has made us a ‘hyper-keystone’ species, benefiting only a few species and humans, this same ability also has the potential to help us restore balance to the world. That requires rejecting anthropocentric supremacy and placing ecosystems at the center stage of our relationship with nonhuman nature. We may have wiped out the mammoths and mastodons, but human destructiveness is not fate.

The cold, low carbon dioxide (CO2) conditions of the Pleistocene epoch fundamentally structured ecosystems, profoundly influencing the evolutionary trajectory of Homo sapiens and other large mammals. Although often considered uniquely stable, the Holocene is more usefully viewed as just another Pleistocene interglacial interval that was naturally trending towards a renewed glacial phase. However, rapid anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission rates have reversed this trajectory and might have now foreclosed the prospect of returning to cyclic glacial climates for millennia. A large set of flora and fauna has benefited from low CO2 conditions, which we define as low-CO2 dependents. By elevating atmospheric CO2 concentrations beyond levels seen for millions of years, we have accelerated global warming beyond the adaptive capacities of many species and ecosystems. African savannas and grasslands are particularly relevant in this context because this was the environment in which the human species evolved. These biomes have been previously maintained by fire and carbon scarcity but are now experiencing woody encroachment driven by rising CO2. The resultant global reforestation further threatens biodiversity adapted to open ecosystems, while rewilding initiatives must therefore pair prehistoric analogues with explicit climate-fitness tests that anticipate mid-century CO2 trajectories. Addressing these complex challenges requires both targeted local interventions and systemic policy reforms, grounded in a pragmatic recognition of the transient nature of the Holocene. Recognising the transience of any single baseline allows conservation and agriculture to plan for a dynamic, overshoot-prone future.

Intergenerational justice is the core principle supporting the legacy of benefit toward future generations, including the perpetuation of species and their genetic diversity, as a key component of biospheric sustainability. Thirty percent of Earth’s terrestrial habitats are now undergoing protection, biodiversity hotspots are being targeted, and there is increasing community awareness and engagement in conservation. However, the impending sixth mass extinction threatens to drive many species to extinction in the wild, irrespective of these interventions. Earth’s biosphere is now undergoing terraforming through ecosystem destruction and modification, urbanization, and agriculture. Therefore, transformative cultural, political, and economic incentives are needed to maximize the legacy of the Earth’s biodiversity and biospheric sustainability toward future generations. Reproduction and advanced biotechnologies can perpetuate species and their genetic diversity while also contributing to human and animal health and agricultural production. Advanced reproduction biotechnologies, including genetic engineering and synthetic biology, provide a new horizon for biospheric management, through the de-extinction of ancient species, restoring recently lost species, and maintaining the genetic diversity of extant species through wildlife biobanking. More extensive and inclusive conservation breeding programs and wildlife biobanking resources/facilities are desperately needed to perpetuate more than 3,000 Critically Endangered terrestrial/freshwater species; a goal fully attainable for amphibians and smaller fishes through global inclusion of stakeholders including private caregivers, plausible for freshwater mussels and crayfish, in development for reptiles and birds, and applicable for many mammals. As this capacity develops, many otherwise neglected species that are losing their natural habitat can be perpetuated solely in biobanks, thus enabling the more efficient utilization of resources toward meaningful field conservation primarily through habitat protection. The full potential of reproduction and advanced biotechnologies includes the development of artificial wombs to address the human population crisis and to avoid surrogacy mismatching during species restoration or de-extinction. The use of advanced reproduction biotechnologies for direct human benefit, for species management, and for biospheric sustainability, are subject to evolving ethical and legal frameworks, particularly regarding genetic engineering, transhumanism, and the de-extinction of ancient species.

Positive human–wildlife coexistence, especially in contexts of rewilding and the reintroduction of large carnivores, partially depends on communication between stakeholders. The media, and in particular local journalism, can play a crucial role in determining people’s knowledge of and attitudes towards wildlife. In this article, we analyse the online coverage of bears produced by the most widely circulated local newspaper in Trentino (Italy), where bears have been reintroduced thanks to a rewilding project funded by the European Union. Employing quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 375 articles, we look into the main features of the media coverage of bears over one year (2024). We find that articles tend to focus on controversial and uncommon events, such as culls and interactions. The most prevalent sources of quotations in the articles are politicians and activists, while experts, local residents, and individuals in the farming sector are less often quoted. The majority of articles are framed through the lens of the socio-political struggle generated by bear presence. Micro-dynamics of the online media coverage include high polarisation, fragmentation of narratives, and the marginalisation of relevant stakeholders (i.e., local communities, experts, European institutions).

Ecosystems are increasingly being represented as marketplaces that produce goods for humanity, and because of this, economic metaphors for increasing efficiency have been introduced into conservation. A powerful model for economic growth is the globalised free market, and some are implicitly deploying it to suggest changes in conservation practice. Ecological globalisation is the position that we should not control the free movement of species and rewilding occurs most efficiently through non-intervention. When species can move and interact with new ecological systems, they create novel ecosystems. These novel arrangements create experimental markets in nature’s economy, providing opportunities for the efficient production of goods for humans, also known as ecosystem services. When invasive species supersede local populations, it indicates previous biotic systems were inefficient, which is why they were replaced, and therefore, it is wrong to protect indigenous “losers” from extinction. Those who defend indigenous species are accused of being xenophobic against recent biotic migrants. This position is flawed both empirically and morally as there is a disconnect between these economic and political arguments when applied to human economies and nature’s economy.

This perspective article takes up the challenge of articulating a political epistemology for extinction studies, centered around how both the systematic-scientific and mythopoetic traditions conceive of the idea of preservation. Political epistemology offers a solution to this for impasse because it asks the question of the social orientation or “end” of knowledge formations, thereby questioning what the larger goal of preservation might be. By focusing on the example of the thylacine, I outline one strand of what a political epistemology for contemporary justifications of preservation in the Museum might look like. Then I discuss how the mode of storytelling in extinction studies also conceives of preservation. Finally, I introduce the idea of replenishment as contrary to the preservation, focused on the cultural practices of Indigenous peoples in North East Arnhem Land, and ask whether new developments in the techno-scientific tradition will begin to turn to replenishment as well.

Cycads, an ancient lineage, face a higher threat of extinction than any other plant group. To address this urgent issue, a more comprehensive method for assessing extinction threat, the Conservation and Prioritization Index (CPI), is proposed and tested for cycads in the State of Veracruz, Mexico. The CPI is a multifaceted approach that incorporates techniques used in conservation status assessments by the IUCN and the Mexican NOM-059-SEMARNAT-2010 but incorporates other information, including georeferenced distribution data, endemism in Veracruz, number of locations, extent of occurrence, and distribution area. Using CPI, correlations were found between longitude and extinction risk for Ceratozamia species in Veracruz. Zamia vazquezii and Z. inermis were assessed to have the highest level of extinction risk. Overall, this study indicates that a more holistic approach, incorporating broader sources of environmental health, can be used to more effectively and proactively manage extinction threats to cycads in Veracruz. In this sense, Veracruz can serve as a model for conservation planning in different states in Mexico and worldwide. CPI is a tool that can be applied to other regions to manage another threatened biota. This method enhances objectivity and effectiveness in conservation efforts, promoting data-driven decision-making that can be used globally.

The possibility of human extinction has received growing academic attention over the last several decades. Research has analysed possible pathways to human extinction, as well as ethical considerations relating to human survival. Potential causes of human extinction can be loosely grouped into exogenous threats such as an asteroid impact and anthropogenic threats such as war or a catastrophic physics accident. In all cases, an outcome as extreme as human extinction would require events or developments that either have been of very low probability historically or are entirely unprecedented. This introduces deep uncertainty and methodological challenges to the study of the topic. This review provides an overview of potential human extinction causes considered plausible in the current academic literature, experts’ judgements of likelihood where available and a synthesis of ethical and social debates relating to the study of human extinction.

Through compositional inclusion or exclusion, the photograph can assert and communicate what belongs in a picture, in a landscape, in an ecosystem. It can illuminate what we deem conservation-worthy, or, on a larger scale, which extinctions are attention-worthy. Photographic practice helps to illuminate the active nature of extinction, and our choices as actors and witnesses within that process. Here, researchers from the University of Leeds’ Extinction Studies Doctoral Training Programme present individual reflections on interdisciplinary practice-led research in the Scottish Small Isles. We consider how photography, as a form of praxis, can generate new forms of knowledge surrounding extinction: its meanings, representations, and legacies, particularly through visual representation. We offer seven perspectives on contemporary image-making, from disciplines including philosophy, conservation biology, literature, sociology, geology, cultural anthropology, and palaeontology. Researchers gathered experiential, ethical, even biological meanings from considering what to include or exclude in images: from the micro to the macro, the visible to the invisible, the aesthetic to the ecological. We draw conclusions around meaning-making through the process of photography itself, and the tensions encountered through framing and decision-making in a time of mass ecological decline.

This perspective positions rewilding as a novel approach to ecosystem restoration, emphasising the restoration of natural processes to create self-willed ecosystems. Central to European rewilding is the de-domestication of cattle and horses to act as functional analogues of the extinct aurochs and wild horses. This de-extinction pathway shifts the focus from the loss of species to the loss of their ecological roles caused by human actions commencing millennia ago. The focus on restoring functional effects provides a strong policy rationale for large herbivore de-domestication, aligning with nature-based solutions to address environmental challenges. This alignment requires a pragmatic approach that prioritises the restoration of ecosystem functions over genetic purity and offers flexibility and scalability in rewilding efforts. I argue that creating a new category of ‘ecosystem engineer’ livestock is more effective than seeking wild status for these animals. As they are released into recovering ecosystems, de-domesticated large herbivores are recreating their ecological roles, ‘life-spheres’ and interactions. These processes open new avenues in both extinction discourse and ecological theory and encourage us to explore how de-extinct species can drive the recovery of European ecosystems.

The transition between the Paleocene and Eocene epochs (ca. 56 Ma) was marked by a period of rapid global warming of 5 °C to 8 °C following a carbon isotope excursion (CIE) lasting 200 ky or less referred to as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). The PETM precipitated a significant shift in the composition of North American floral communities and major mammalian turnover. We explored the ecological impacts of this phenomenon by analyzing 173 mammal species from the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, USA, including their associated body alongside a database of 30 palynofloral localities as proxies for habitat. For each time bin, we calculated mean and median differences in body mass and habitat preference between significantly aggregated and segregated mammal species. Aggregated species showed significant similarity in habitat preference only prior to the PETM, after which habitat preference ceased to be a significant factor in community assembly. Our measures of differences in body mass space provide no evidence of a significant impact of competitive interactions on community assembly across the PETM, aligning with previous work. Our results indicate the persistence of a stable mammalian functional community structure despite taxonomic turnover, climate change and broadening habitat preferences.