A risky revival the world doesn’t need

An American bioscience company, Colossal Biosciences, has for long pursued an enterprise to bring back to life animals that went extinct centuries ago and has made some announcements in the past about the successes it has achieved in its research.

It calls its efforts de-extinction and has claimed that they would lead to the revival of the Tasmanian tiger which once lived in Australia, the dodo which disappeared from Mauritius some centuries ago and the iconic woolly mammoth which once roamed the planet’s coldest region in the Arctic tundra.

The company has now claimed that it has developed a woolly mouse in the lab which has mammoth-like hair and traits adapted to cold regions. It said: “We have been editing elephant cells for two years... The woolly mouse project confirms that these target edits will help restore the woolly coat phenotype.”

The science of reviving long-dead species back to life is one thing. The wisdom and ethics of doing it is another. Even if it is possible to manipulate the genes of extinct animals, several questions will be raised about the need and desirability of doing so.

The purpose served by such projects is unclear. Their proponents claim that bringing extinct animals back will help strengthen the environment. They also claim that de-extinction will help improve present-day conservation efforts and boost biodiversity. These arguments are unconvincing.

Animals became extinct because their food sources dried up, their living environment or the climate changed or they were eliminated by predators. They are now being brought back into very different environmental and climatic conditions, and their survival will be extremely difficult in the new conditions.

The woolly mammoths, for example, would now be introduced to a much warmer Arctic world and their woolly hair may become a life-endangering handicap for them. It is most unlikely that de-extinction will lead to the emergence of viable populations of species. They would also not have the food support systems they once had.

De-extinction and creation of new species through genetic engineering are fanciful ideas that have received much attention in science fiction and even in mythologies. These have highlighted the dangers that such scientific misadventures might pose. Scientists have themselves warned against such attempts. 

Humanity is already facing serious threats such as climate change. Genetic re-engineering and manipulation can pose other threats, if matters go wrong in the lab. The Covid-19 experience is too recent to forget. The journey from the mouse to the mammoth will be long, and it is likely to be risky. Centuries later, woolly mammoths, revived and evolved, may plan to bring back to life extinct humans.