Now the “de-extinction” company Colossal Biosciences wants to genetically resurrect the Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) or the Tasmanian wolf.
They are also planning to revive wooly mammoths. But tasmanian tigers have a gestation of 42 days, and elephants of 2 years, so they think they can do the Tasmania tigers first.
Yeah, this article is only about mammals, but they’re might be some birds that we have enough DNA from to revive. Passenger pigeons? Dodos? Probably lot of others.
They can try. Maybe it will work. I think it will take more than one animal of a species to be de-extincted before we have to worry about the effect on the eco-system. That applies to mammals, birds though are actually dinosaurs in disguise and they’re always trouble.
I’m kinda negative on this idea. We’ve got enough non-extinct animals struggling as it is. What, now we’re going to de-extinct something and turn it loose into an environment that can no longer support it, to compete with other in-danger of extinction animals? I don’t care for the whole “safety net” aspect here, where if we f-up, it can be undone. Perhaps first we should be improving things so existing species are reinforced before spending time and resources on something like this. Otherwise, we risk re-extincting things. Didn’t Dr Malcolm also say “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”?
That’s happened, to a larger degree than you might realize. Bald eagles have made a huge comeback. A lot of other animals that were hunted to low levels have increased their populations.
Yes, there is still habitat pressure on lots of animals, and hunting pressure on a few. But the tasmanian tiger, for instance, might do okay today.
I have other issues with it. I don’t know about tasmanian tigers, but elephants are intelligent, social animals, and mammoths probably were, too. i wonder about the poor mammoth who is the only one of its species, with no adults to learn from.
