Once There Were Giants

A journey into the lost age of giants—and the people trying to bring them back. Once There Were Giants reveals how megafauna once powered the planet’s ecosystems and why our future depends on learning to live with them again.

Once, the world thundered with giants.

From dodo-haunted islands to mammoth-studded ice sheets, from gomphotheres in South American rainforests to hippos in Colombian rivers, huge animals—past and present—have quietly engineered the living planet.

Naturalist and science communicator Chantal Lyons travels from Yellowstone’s wolf‑and‑lion country to rewilded European forests, from Siberia’s experimental “Pleistocene Park” to Namibian villages negotiating every night with elephants at the garden fence. Along the way, she shows that megafauna are not just spectacular animals; they are “hot‑blooded rivers” of nutrients and fear, shaping forests, grasslands, oceans, and even the climate itself.

Blending vivid storytelling, cutting‑edge science, and on‑the‑ground encounters with people who live alongside giants, Lyons asks a radical question: can we dare to bring them back—and can we truly live with them?

If we want a planet that is not only habitable, but boisterously alive, the answer may need to be yes.

In Once There Were Giants, you’ll discover:

• How elephants, rhinos, bison, and whales act as living climate systems, moving nutrients and carbon across the globe.
• Why so many trees—avocado included—evolved for partners that no longer exist.
• What really happened when wolves returned to Yellowstone, beyond the popular myth.
• The hidden costs of a world ruled by “mesopredators” like foxes, boar, and baboons.
• The controversial rise of “invisible megafauna”: mustangs, camels, hippos, and other giants we pretend don’t belong.
• Front‑line stories from communities sharing land and sea with lions, bears, sharks, and elephants—and what true coexistence demands.

Urgent, immersive, and fiercely hopeful, Once There Were Giants shows that saving the last great animals—and accepting their power—is inseparable from saving ourselves.

Published in Partnership with the David Suzuki Institute