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wyumtoday at 4:18 PM1 replyview on HN

I was curious why we don't hear about locust swarms anymore in the US

Turns out this species - the Rocky Mountain locust was made accidentally extinct by settlers. Although the swarms could be huge, they had a small and concentrated breeding ground that was destroyed by farming and cows. Wikipedia says the last specimen was collected in 1904.


Replies

r721today at 4:31 PM

So, to de-extinct them probably would be too controversial as they were a pest?

>The locusts not only ate the grass and valuable crops, but also leather, wood, sheep's wool, and—in extreme cases—even clothes off peoples' backs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocky_Mountain_locust#Last_maj...

What if a mad scientist would do that? :)

UPD Found a reddit discussion on the topic: https://old.reddit.com/r/megafaunarewilding/comments/17gxmux...