Figueroa Mountain Game Preserve

The Santa Ynez Valley Natural History Society and Solvang Library invite you to a free illustrated lecture Thursday, May 11, at 7:00 p.m. at Solvang Library, 1745 Mission Drive. Los Olivos resident Ken Doud will use photo simulations to help the audience imagine what a game preserve on Figueroa Mountain featuring prehistoric megafauna would look like.

As recently as 10,000 years ago, in what is known as the Late Pleistocene period, prehistoric elephants, lions, saber-toothed cats, and many other large beasts were part of the now-vanished megafauna in California. Ken Doud will present a scenario where these creatures did not become extinct but instead could be viewed at a local game preserve on Figueroa Mountain. He uses state-of-the-art digital technology to depict accurate restorations of the extinct animals based on Rancho La Brea Tar Pit fossils.

The imaginary “Figueroa Mountain Game Preserve” is modeled after the warm-temperate game preserves Hluhluwe-Imfolozi in South Africa, which boasts a full complement of large mammals and associated fauna. The Late Pleistocene megafauna did not disappear in Africa and has survived into recent times. We can compare the two ecosystems and speculate whether megafauna could fit ecologically in present-day California. We will also examine some possible reasons why these animals became extinct.

This in-person talk will also be live-streamed via Zoom on a link emailed to SYVNHS members and friends of the Society. As the date gets closer, the link to stream this talk will also be posted to our website, www.syvnature.org