Sharon Levy: Once and Future Giants: What Ice Age Extinctions Tell Us About the Fate of Earth’ s Largest Animals Oxford: Oxford University Press 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-537012-6, Price $24.95 (hardback), xvii + 255 pages, index Sarah Papworth Published online: 16 March 2012 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012 Sharon Levy presents a directed and easy to read argument for the importance of megafauna in the global landscape. Using Pleistocene extinctions of woolly mammoth and other large herbivores, Levy draws parallels between past extinctions and threats facing today’ s populations of megafauna. The topic is approached from various disciplines, building evidence for the impact of humans on modern and Pleistocene megafauna. In the final sections of the book, the implications of the evidence presented for conservation is discussed. Throughout, interesting and varied examples of prehistoric and contempo- rary megafaunal are given. Levy introduces rewilding, species reintroductions and translocations as management measures to protect modern megafauna. Starting at an archaeological dig near New York, Levy discusses the role of humans in the extinction of mammoths in North America. Declines of angiosperms in soil cores, followed by extreme burning events, are indicative of a decline in large herbivores. This pattern in soil cores, states Levy, is repeated just after the first arrival of humans worldwide. The alternative hypothesis for the Pleistocene megafaunal extinc- tions is, of course, climate change. Levy counters this with the work of Paul Martin on giant ground sloth coprolites. Martin found these sloths were surprising adaptable, with their cop- rolites containing plants indicative of warmer, wetter climes and dryer, colder periods. This variety in sloth diets suggests they would be more than capable of adjusting to a new climate. Having set up humans as the likely contributions to megafaunal decline, Levy goes on to discuss the role of herbivore megafauna in seed germination and dispersal. The following two chapters review parallels between the ecology of modern elephants and the suspected ecology of woolly mammoths, read from mammoth tusks and tracks. These chapters conclude that mammoth decline was most likely due to increased human hunting pressure. Having presented various evidence that humans caused megafaunal extinctions, Levy then moves on to a solution to these extinctions called ‘rewilding’. Starting with the famous reintroductions of wolves to Yellowstone, Levy discusses the ecological benefits of restoring top predators, and the tropic cascades which occur when keystone species are removed. This is, of course, a controversial issue and one which still causes debate between academics, politicians and the general public. Levy thus follows with cases of accidental rewilding and the effects of these events for the biological community. Using mustangs in the American southwest and camels in Australia, Levy shows that these herbivorous megafauna can bring benefits to ecosystems, but these species can only live unmanaged in the live when large carnivores are also present. Using the example of the accidental introduction of the Dingo in Australia, Levy presents evidence that only the presence of carnivores in the landscape can stabilize ecosystems and produce the most biodiverse areas. Levy also discusses assisted relocations, a solution pre- sented by some conservation practitioners to aid species to move to more climatically appropriate locations. Although relocations have been successfully used in other countries, current law in the USA prevents the translocation of endan- gered species. Although originally proposed to protect these species, this law may mean that interventions which could save a species are not implemented. Another recent S. Papworth (*) Imperial College London, Silwood Park Campus, Buckhurst Road, Ascot, Berkshire, UK e-mail: sarah.papworth06@imperial.ac.uk Hum Ecol (2012) 40:477–478 DOI 10.1007/s10745-012-9473-8