"The pros and cons of resurrecting extinct animals" Topic

"Scientists from across the world have "scanned the horizon" in order to identify potentially significant medium and long-term threats to conservation efforts.

Resurrection of several extinct species, the increasingly accelerated loss of wild rhinoceroses and a disastrous financial response to unburnable carbon are just some future global conservation issues flagged up in this year's Horizon Scan, recently published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

Professor William Sutherland and Dr Mark Spalding are amongst the 18 scientists who took part in this year's Horizon Scan, seeking to identify potential future conservation issues in order to reduce the "probability of sudden confrontation with major social or environmental changes"…"
Full article here
link

I would like to see some of them again.

Amicalement
Armand

BRONTOBURGERS!

Yeah!

Charlie

Unfortunately dino DNA isn't recoverable from what I know. And other than them, Wooly mammoths and rhinos what would be the point of bringing back anything else.

I want a pet thylacine.

Personally, I think it inhumane.

The de-extinct species would be, by definition, an invasive species so you'd be forced to keep it in captivity.

Thylacine and dodo! Wonder if they could do the Great Auk as well.

Re invasive species, in lots of places there are attempts being made to reintroduce species that are no longer found in certain areas – it would be much better to do this using the original now-extinct subspecies from that area. In the US, for example, I believe wolves are being reintroduced in some areas – but many of those areas used to have their own distinct sub species.

If the major problem with the rhinos is poaching, what would be the point in providing more rhinos for them to poach? Shouldn't something be done about that sort of problem first?

Poaching is VERY hard to stop – about the same as stopping illegal drugs. The more that is done to stop it the more profitable it becomes.

Another problem is the number of things a baby learns from its mommy. You successfully clone a woolly mammoth, and give it to an elephant to raise? Here's hoping the elephant can accept her hairy adopted kid. And here's hoping the adopted kid can adjust to living like an elephant.

The big reason for rhino and elephant poaching is the demand for Chinese herbal medicine. If that silliness could be stomped out, then that poaching would drop to a trickle.

You know, it's likely that *we* drove a number of those species extinct, us, homo double-sap. And there were *reasons* we did it. Sometimes it was because the critters were especially tastey, or easy to hunt. Sometimes it was because they found us tastey and easy to hunt. Do we really need to re-discover all that history first-hand?

"Oh, yeah. Oooh, ahhh, that's how it always starts. Then later there's running and screaming."
- Jurassic Park

…the demand for Chinese herbal medicine. If that silliness…

Doctor McCoy had a few choice comments about Western Medicine.

Doctor McCoy had a few choice comments about Western Medicine.

Dammit Jim, I'm a shaman, not a miracle worker!

Charlie

I'll second MHoxie and GarrisonMiniatures. The Thylacine would be one of the first they should try.

1. Recently extinct (ie: last Century) so we have a fair bit of material for DNA
2. Tasmania is one of the least disturbed areas of Australia
3. It would be widely supported by Australians, and especially Tasmanians
4. Thylacine watching would be a lucrative industry for Tasmania, which needs all the help it can get.

Absolutely no reason to resurrect dinosaurs, but comments about fixing current environmental degradation and pressures such as poaching are quite valid.

But the thylacine is dear to the hearts of many Australians, and often thought as our greatest loss*.

Cheers,
John
*Ecologists may differ as there is a very long list of extinct Australian mammals…

I heard dodo bird tastes like chicken!

The main problem I would see is that these extinct animals didn't live in isolation. They interacted with the ecology of other animals and plants. When they went extinct new animals came in and stressed (evolved) plants and other animals. The newly recreated animals wouldn't return to the world they knew…or maybe even could survive in.

M-

Three words:

GIANT CAVE SLOTH.

GIANT CAVE SLOTH.

I *resemble* that remark!

Charlie

Thylacines seem like the obvious go-to, but what do we know about their behavioral ecology? The case for reviving a species becomes much weaker if you take into account that it will never be suited to life outside of captivity, which is going to be the case for any animal in which learned behavior is a crucial component in its development. That would rule out many mammals.

There are, of course, other organisms that have gone extinct within living memory, and if we could reintroduce them with a reasonable expectation of survival then maybe there's a case for it. I think as many have pointed out, though, it would behoove us to attempt to curtail the threats to current biodiversity before tossing recently extinct species back into the mix, though.

Another thumbs up for thylacines.

True the initial individuals would need supplemental upbringing (like orphaned sea otters, etc.), but after a few generations in the wild (presumably some sort of protected area in Tasmania) they might build up a body of expertise. The problem is that the gene pool would be about as limited as you could get.

MH

For those not sure what one looks like:

BTW I could have sworn I saw one outside Toowoomba in '82

Hope you've seen right my friend.
It was a beautiful animal.

Amicalement
Armand

Tango, my friend.
The Thylacine became extinct on the Australian mainland not less than 2000 years ago.

I was either crazy, hallucinating or inebriated. As I don't drink, you guess which one.

I prefer to choose you see it. (smile).

Amicalement
Armand