Table 1.

Summary list of taxa considered for tropical rewilding, with descriptions of the factors considered in the case studies

Taxon	Previous range	Current range	Taxonomy	IUCN status and reference	Habitat	Ecological role	Reason for decline	Available stock	Costs/Risks	Benefits	Priority sites	Other comments
Giant tortoises	Mainland Asia to Fiji	None	Meiolaniidae (several extinct fossil species endemic to multiple island groups/regions)	Extinct	Wide variety, rainforest to grassland and woodland	Seed dispersal, maintain vegetation heterogeneity	Hunting, invasive mammals, climate change	Taxon substitutions available from Galapagos Islands	May spread invasive plants, need to control rats	Partial ecological restoration, ecotourism	Uninhabited Pacific islands	Indian island reintroductions successful
Long-beaked echidna	New Guinea, mainland Australia	New Guinea	Zaglossus bruijnii, Zaglossu sbartoni, Zaglossus attenboroughi	All species critically endangered (Leary et al. 2008a,b,c) (Leary et al. 2008a,b,c)	Subalpine, rain forest	Soil turnover, invertebrate feeder	Hunting and habitat loss	Very limited populations in zoos and New Guinea	None known	Species security	Protected Australian tropical rainforest
Tasmanian devil	Mainland Australia, Tasmania	Tasmania	Sarcophilus harrisii, 1 or 2 fossil species	Endangered (Hawkins et al. 2008)	Forest, moorlands, grass/woodlands	Scavenger with hunting ability	Hunting, disease, climate change, vehicles	Successful captive breeding programs, zoos		Species security, suppress feral carnivores	Mainland Australia	Captive breeding programs already successful on mainland
Elephants and stegodons	China to Timor	China, India, Borneo	Elephas maximus, multiple extinct species of Elephas, Palaeoloxodon, and Stegodon	Endangered and extinct (Choudhury et al. 2008)	Forest and grasslands	Seed dispersal, maintain vegetation heterogeneity	Hunting, habitat loss, climate change	Many captive elephants available	Human-elephant conflict	Dispersal of megafaunal fruits, ecotourism, national pride	Large protected forest areas in Holocene range	Individual elephants successfully released in several areas
Orangutans	South China to Java	Borneo and Sumatra	Pongo abelii Pongo pygmaeus unknown fossil spp.	Pongo abelii critically endangered; Pongo pygmaeus endangered (Ancrenaz et al. 2008; Singleton et al. 2008)	Forests, including degraded areas	Seed dispersal	Habitat loss, hunting, climate change	Breed well in captivity, captured from deforested areas and confiscated pets	Human conflict	Ecotourism, seed dispersal, species security, individual welfare	Large protected areas in Borneo, Sumatra, maybe Peninsular Malaysia	Small scale reintroductions in historic range already underway.
Calamian hog deer	Palawan	Calamianes Islands	Axis calamianensis	Endangered (Oliver et al. 2008)	Grasslands, open woodland and secondary forest	Browser, maintenance of environmental heterogeneity	Hunting, human settlement and agricultural expansion	Limited wild populations	Human predation	Species security, game animal	Protected areas in Palawan
Tapir	South China to Java	Indochina	Tapirus indicus	Endangered (Lynam et al. 2008)	Primary and secondary forest	Browsing/seed dispersal	Loss of habitat, hunting	Bred in captivity	Human predation	Species security	Borneo
Rhinoceroses	South China to Sundaand Luzon	India, Indochina, Java, Sumatra Borneo	Rhinoceros unicornis, Rhinoceros sondaicus, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis	Rhinoceros unicornisvulnerable (extinct from region considered); Rhinoceros sondaicus criticallyendangered; Dicerorhinus sumatrensis critically endangered (van Strien et al. 2008a,b; Talukdar et al. 2008)	Grasslands, primary forest	Grazers, browsers, seed dispersal	Hunting,	Indian available, Sumatran, Javan probably not	Possible human-wildlife conflict	Species security, ecological restoration	Well- protected forest
Tiger	Mainland Asia to Bali	Siberia, Sumatra, India, Indochina	Panther atigris 3 subspecies extinct	Endangered (Chundawat et al. 2011)	Mixed grass/woodland, rain forest	Apex predator	Hunting	Breeds well in captivity	Human-tiger conflict, need large prey populations	Restoration of predation, national pride, ecotourism	Large protected areas in SE Asia	Successful reintroduction in India