- The new book “Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America’s Eastern Wilderness” chronicles how the U.S. East Coast has seen an inspiring resurgence of wildlife in recent decades.
- From elk to moose, sandhill cranes to bear and bison, author Andrew Moore answers Mongabay’s questions about the findings contained in his engaging new read timed perfectly for “beach read” season in the U.S.
Thinking of America’s iconic wild creatures and places usually brings images of Yellowstone or Denali National Park to mind, or the many wilderness areas scattered across multiple states, but the collective imagination generally passes over the East Coast, with its long history of human settlement and large urban population centers.
However, a new book by Andrew Moore, “Beasts of the East: The Fall and Rise of America’s Eastern Wilderness” contains a collection of inspiring narratives which argues that this is a mistake. Through a combination of science, effort, imagination and policy, the East has seen a great resurgence of wildlife and wildlands through reintroductions, ecological restoration, and rewilding that adds up to one of this year’s most eye-opening reads.
In an interview with Mongabay, Moore discussed themes in his book chronicling this underreported story, and his responses have been edited lightly.
Mongabay: What did wildlife populations in the U.S. East look like pre-European settlement, and afterward for a while before resource extraction and agriculture became rampant across the landscape, that might surprise readers to know?
Andrew Moore: Picture first the landscape: bigger, wetter, wilder in all ways, and frequently on fire. And then fill this natural area with massive animals, including whooping cranes and sandhill cranes, black bears, deer, plus overwhelming flocks of Carolina parakeets and passenger pigeons.
Imagine sprawling meadows and tallgrass prairies filled with bison and elk — for the Northeast and the Great Lakes, fill your mind’s eye with moose and woodland caribou, too, and the Indigenous hunters who were in constant pursuit.
And then remember that this image is just a snapshot of a moment in time, and only what we think it was like. Hopefully, as we assemble the missing pieces, we will continue to refine our understanding of an earlier, wilder East.
Mongabay: The book engagingly documents the kinds of conservation solutions we cover a lot, like restoration, reintroductions, and rewilding — but also another key solution: imagination on the part of conservationists, managers and hunters about what wildlife could rebound, where, and how. Can you share a favorite example of someone in the book that has exhibited great imagination?
Andrew Moore: Steve Packard’s vision for assembling all the pieces of a wild Illinois prairie — which included bringing American bison back to the cornfields west of Chicago — was one of the boldest and most rigorous projects of ecological restoration ever attempted. At the time, very few people had any faith that a tallgrass prairie could be resurrected.
Since its establishment in the 1980s, the Nachusa Grasslands project has become one of the most important — and most successful — projects of ecological restoration anywhere in the world.
Mongabay: Following their recent reintroduction, Kentucky now has the largest elk herd east of the Mississippi, with approximately 10,000 animals spread across a 16-county restoration zone, how many other states could accomplish something like this?
Andrew Moore: Most of the elk’s former eastern range could still meet the biological needs of these animals, but the big question is social acceptance. Elk have the potential to become just as problematic as whitetail deer in the East from the perspective of crop damage and over-browsing, and the serious threat of vehicle collisions.
At the same time, they also bring tremendous benefits and value, and as an indigenous species, they contain an inherent right to exist here. But it’s also important to remember that while they are charismatic and majestic, elk are not the only extirpated species worthy of consideration.
So, the question then becomes one of ecological triage: are these animals the most critical missing species in any given location, or is there significant groundwork, and are there other worthy species — including indigenous plant communities — to consider first?
Mongabay: My own state in New England has rebounded from almost total deforestation to now being 80% forested, and the wildlife has proliferated, too – from moose to bear, fishers, otters and more that I regularly glimpse on my camera traps – but one creature that’s still missing is cougars – although people regularly claim to have seen them, they’re never caught on camera. When do you think the East will be ready for resident mountain lions?
Andrew Moore: As one eastern elk biologist told me, mountain lions need “cover and deer” – and as you’ve just noted, we’ve got that in spades just about everywhere in the East. Ecologically, the East is ready for cougars. When will people be ready? That’s a tough one.
But cougars do seem to have this one advantage over wolves: as you mentioned, many folks in the East believe they’ve been here all along, lurking in the darkest forests and deepest swamps. And this belief might make their real comeback a bit more acceptable.
Mongabay: One thing the heavily developed East probably needs more of is corridors and road passage infrastructure for wildlife movement and migration – how do you see the region’s connectivity between habitats, and what more needs to be done?
Andrew Moore: Unfortunately, I see connectivity getting worse. We continue to sprawl into our remaining wild and rural areas in the East, with everything from suburban homes and strip malls to data centers and distribution hubs being built.
In South Florida, for example, we continue building entirely new communities smack dab in the middle of the endangered Florida panther’s habitat, the last and perhaps final refuge for these Eastern mountain lions anywhere.
We can celebrate some conservation victories, though, including federal and state funding for wildlife crossings in the endangered red wolf’s North Carolina habitat, but for true recovery to occur, these species will need not just safe passage, but wild lands too.
The wolves and the panthers — along with the elk and the bison — will need enough space to be themselves, and to be at home.
Erik Hoffner is a photojournalist and senior editor at Mongabay, view his latest projects and reporting via Instagram, Bluesky or LinkedIn.
Banner image: A bull elk reintroduced to Kentucky. Image courtesy of Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife.
See related coverage:
A win-win, animal crossings make roads safer for wildlife and people
Rhinos reintroduced to Indian park are breeding, but still need support
On the brink of extinction, the Javan green magpie gets a conservation lifeline
Cite this article
Erik Hoffner (2026). ‘Beasts of the East’ chronicles the unheralded restoration successes of America’s eastern wildlife. Mongabay Conservation news. DOI: https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323641Credits
