# We can clone woolly mammoths. Should we? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [November 20, 2008, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561 "2008-11-20T00:38:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/41 "2008-11-20T16:52:49Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Such a clone would look like a mammoth, but would inevitably act like the zoo elephant that birthed it and from which it would model behaviors. Animals are a combination of their physical bodies and their behaviors. What you are discussing here isn’t bringing back the mammoth. It’s actually a project to develop a hairy zoo elephant. I don’t know if that’s true. It would have some instincts that are probably different than an elephants, and there would be certain elephant behaviors that were outside its possible repertoire of behaviors. > [@Sampiro](#): > > I wonder if a wooly mammoth could breed with an elephant. Almost certainly the could. It might take a little artificial insemination, but these are long-lived, slow breeding animals that didn’t split off from each other that long ago. > [@XT](#): > > BTW, disagree with John Mace that there is positive evidence that humans were the cause of extinction. From what I understand it was climate change which could have been brought about by a meteor strike somewhere in upper Canada (in the ice…no crater). Humans may have been the ones to put the bullet in the back of the head, but the mammoth was already on it’s knees and pretty much going out by then. At least that’s my understanding. This being the 'dope of course I’m sure to be corrected if my memory is grossly wrong. No, that’s not the generally accepted hypothesis. But even if it was, my point would still be valid. And note that I said we were at least part of the cause. There would be no way to predict if mammoths would have become extinct without the presence of humans, so saying they were on their way out is not a scientific statement. ---
**Author:** ![you\_with\_the\_face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ecccb3/32.png) [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/42 "2008-11-20T17:11:56Z")
Yes, but only if we keep it shaved. I wouldn’t want the poor thing to overheat. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/43 "2008-11-20T17:23:44Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > From what I understand it was climate change which could have been brought about by a meteor strike somewhere in upper Canada (in the ice…no crater). Humans may have been the ones to put the bullet in the back of the head, but the mammoth was already on it’s knees and pretty much going out by then. It’s my understanding that there’s a pretty clear correlation between humans moving into a new area, and that area’s megafauna being made extinct. Humans are just too good at killing large creatures whose main defense is that they’re really big, and megafauna are just too convenient a food source. Plus, I bet mammoth meat is very tasty. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/44 "2008-11-20T17:23:51Z")
I would hope we’d place the animal in a climate where it could live without having to be shaved. Assuming we’d want to view it, we should see it in all its splendor. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/45 "2008-11-20T17:25:16Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > It’s my understanding that there’s a pretty clear correlation between humans moving into a new area, and that area’s megafauna being made extinct. Humans are just too good at killing large creatures whose main defense is that they’re really big, and megafauna are just too convenient a food source. > > Plus, I bet mammoth meat is very tasty. And just to be clear… “caused by humans” doesn’t necessarily mean “hunted to extinction”. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/46 "2008-11-20T18:04:48Z")
I’m all for it. While they’re at it, I want them to bring back a) thylocines b) passenger pigeons c) dodo birds ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/47 "2008-11-20T18:17:42Z")
The proper care of elephants, whether in zoos or on nature preserves, is hugely controversial, and we’ve had thousands of years of interaction and observation with them. Elephants are long-lived, intelligent animals with complex social and emotional as well as physical needs. (See, for starters, [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/unforgettable/emotions.html.](http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/unforgettable/emotions.html.)) We don’t know how a mammoth would compare, but I wouldn’t view it in the same light as bringing back an extinct strain of plankton or maize. I’m not keen on subjecting an animal to decades of suffering because it would be “cool.” > [@Onomatopoeia](#): > > …American Christianity’s moralist’s penchant for irrationally attempting to squelch scientific progress. … Hey, why let the Christian’s have all the moralizing fun? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/48 "2008-11-20T21:01:08Z")
> [@BwanaBob](#): > > I’m all for it. > > While they’re at it, I want them to bring back > > a) thylocines > b) passenger pigeons > c) dodo birds d) [Carolina parakeets](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_parakeet) e) [Giant ground sloths](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_ground_sloth) f) [Glyptodonts](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyptodontidae) g) [Macrauchenia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrauchenia) ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/49 "2008-11-20T21:08:36Z")
I want to breed dog-sized cockroaches, and foot long dragon flies (such as existed in the Carboniferous era)! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/50 "2008-11-20T21:29:29Z")
Are woolly mammoths any good for, you know, wool? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/51 "2008-11-20T21:31:03Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > And just to be clear… “caused by humans” doesn’t necessarily mean “hunted to extinction”. True. Animals can go extinct because humans have outcompeted with them for food or otherwise disrupted their food supply or changed the local ecosystem. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/52 "2008-11-21T00:45:23Z")
> [@ethelbert](#): > > Can we make small ones that we can have as pets? THe pictures on this site change daily, but hurry for the [mini elephants.](http://bucklesw.blogspot.com/) Scroll down about six pictures. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/53 "2008-11-21T03:03:05Z")
> [@ethelbert](#): > > Can we make small ones that we can have as pets? Perhaps we can engineer them to have multiple asses. > > Sorry, didn’t see that this was in Great Debates. What the hell am I doing in GD? You mean like [mimmoths?](http://girlgenius.wikia.com/wiki/Mimmoth) They are a pest. I think we should, if anything to iron out the procedure so in case some other species goes extint in our watch it can be brought back in the near or far future. Just imagine if a few hundred years from now we find ourselves in an imperative need to bring back humpback whales to avoid Earths destruction… Ok, I’ll stop being so geeky here. There are quite a few species that have gone or are in the brink of extintion, the Yangtze river dolphin, monk seals, West African black rhino, etc. Some have passed away in the last few decades, we may still be able to recover DNA from specimens. Also it would be possible to collect genetic material from critically endangered species today, so in the even of an inevitable extintion it could be attempted to reintroduce the species in the future where (hopefully) the environmental conditions have improved. It would be like a test tube Noah’s Ark to get through an ecological crisis. ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/54 "2008-11-21T03:06:57Z")
Of course we should clone them. We should do it because we can. Because we might learn something interesting. Because it would be cool. Besides, if things don’t work out, we can always make them extinct again. I want a quagga, some dodos, passenger pigeons, heath hens, and Steller’s sea cow next. We’ve been to the moon and back again. We have explored the depths and the heights. Now, we are poised to accomplish miracles beyond nature herself! We can reach out to that far shore and call back a vanished species! Ancient wonders can walk this world once more! An you ask if we should? We MUST! There is no going back. There is only on and on to new heights, to new greatness. Let me hear the thunder of mammoth’s tread! Let me see them trumpet! Let us create another miracle in the name of science! ---
**Author:** ![BrightNShiny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@BrightNShiny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrightNShiny)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/55 "2008-11-21T04:50:45Z")
If this was the seventies, when hairy was in, I’d say sure. But nowadays? No. I’d hate to have to see a poor Mammoth having to get waxed. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/56 "2008-11-21T04:54:19Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > I want to breed dog-sized cockroaches, and foot long dragon flies (such as existed in the Carboniferous era)! While theoretically we could bring them back if we could obtain a sample of DNA that could be reconstructed. Brief aside. I believe the issues with contaminated and degraded samples is only a very temporary hurdle. If we don’t currently have enough processing power to sort out the full sequence, we will in short order. So after having come up with their gene map we decide to hatch out a few samples. They could never exist outside a sealed environment. [Link.](http://www.livescience.com/animals/070813_big_bugs.html) The current levels of oxygen in the atmosphere just won’t support a creature that size having a passive respiratory system. Of course, them not being able to survive in the wild is a good thing in the event that a breeding pair or a pregnant female ever escaped. Why bring back the dodos, passenger pigeons, and other recently extinct species? I don’t buy that we owe it to them because we were a significant cause for them to die off in the first place. Species have been dieing off throughout history. Sure, there’s a cool factor to it, but what of it? They’re certainly not going back to their former ecological nitches. Those were paved over to build a new Starbucks. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/57 "2008-11-21T05:16:55Z")
> [@Projammer](#): > > They’re certainly not going back to their former ecological nitches. Those were paved over to build a new Starbucks. Not true! Not in all cases, anyway. [Pigeon Mountain](http://doctorflowers.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/111221hogjowlroad.jpg) is still sitting there (relatively) undisturbed in north Georgia, just awaiting the return of the flocks. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/58 "2008-11-21T07:48:43Z")
> [@ethelbert](#): > > Can we make small ones that we can have as pets? Perhaps we can engineer them to have multiple asses. > > Sorry, didn’t see that this was in Great Debates. What the hell am I doing in GD? If the cloning material came from one of the [Wrangel Island mammoths,](http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v362/n6418/abs/362337a0.html) then yes, you could have a dwarf mammoth. [How big would that be?](http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/mammoth/about_mammoths.html) > [@](#): > > Dwarf forms of mammoth are known from fossils found on islands: M. exilis from California’s Channel Islands stood only about four to six feet at the shoulder. So, yeh, a midget mammoth ```auto ``` Okay, I’ve stopped giggling. Anyway, yes, a dwarf mammoth ought to be about as manageable as, say, a pet Brahma bull. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/59 "2008-11-21T07:48:46Z")
I think it’s a great idea, not just because we’re living in the Future and should be able to do these things, but because of the innumerable scientific benefits to all mankind- just as the space race led to advances in technology, advances in cloning technology will (hopefully) led to improvements in medical science and other beneficial areas. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561/60 "2008-11-21T07:54:33Z")
> [@DocCathode](#): > > Of course we should clone them. We should do it because we can. Because we might learn something interesting. Because it would be cool. Besides, if things don’t work out, we can always make them extinct again. > > I want a quagga, some dodos, passenger pigeons, heath hens, and Steller’s sea cow next. > > We’ve been to the moon and back again. We have explored the depths and the heights. Now, we are poised to accomplish miracles beyond nature herself! We can reach out to that far shore and call back a vanished species! Ancient wonders can walk this world once more! An you ask if we should? We MUST! There is no going back. There is only on and on to new heights, to new greatness. Let me hear the thunder of mammoth’s tread! Let me see them trumpet! Let us create another miracle in the name of science! Which is all well and good, but who’s going to clean up the manure? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-can-clone-woolly-mammoths-should-we/473561.md?page=4)