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The Colossal Species Reintroduction Fund has named seven endangered and at-risk species for its second cohort, directing money to rewilding projects across four continents. The fund is a joint effort between the Colossal Foundation — the nonprofit arm of Dallas-based de-extinction company Colossal Biosciences, known for its woolly mammoth and dire wolf work — and the global wildlife organization Re:wild. It is the first fund dedicated to returning at-risk species to the wild, and it commits at least $250,000 annually to support every phase of a reintroduction, from genetic assessment to post-release monitoring.
The Colossal Foundation works with over 55 conservation partners, including Re:wild, to move science and technology from the lab into the field. This week’s announcement marks the second class of species the fund has backed since it launched two years ago.
The Colossal Species Reintroduction Fund selected seven species across four continents for its second cohort
The second cohort of the Colossal Species Reintroduction Fund backs seven endangered and at-risk species on four continents, pairing each with a field project to return it to habitat it had lost — from a banteng in Cambodia and brown howler monkeys near Rio de Janeiro to black-footed ferrets in South Dakota and the northern quoll in Australia. Each project targets a species already pushed to the edge of its former range.
| Species | Reintroduction site | Key sourced detail |
|---|---|---|
| Banteng | Cambodian sanctuary | One of Asia’s largest wild cattle; population down roughly 80% in 20 years; airlifted in to join 32 others already relocated. |
| Brown howler monkey | National park near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | Returning to a park where the last individual was recorded by Charles Darwin in 1832. |
| Black-footed ferret | 148,000-acre South Dakota bison ranch | Every living black-footed ferret descends from just seven animals. |
| Guatemalan lizard | A single mountain in Guatemala | The mountain is the only place on Earth the species still exists. |
| Sunflower sea star | Pacific seafloor | Up to a meter across with about two dozen arms; a wasting disease erased an estimated 99% of the species from its southern range. |
| Sihek (Guam kingfisher) | Remote, snake-free atoll | Declared extinct in the wild in 1988; nine birds released in 2024 all survived and laid the first wild eggs in a generation; a second cohort of nine is planned this year. |
| Northern quoll | Predator-free haven in north Queensland, Australia | Spotted marsupial predator; the Australian Wildlife Conservancy will move up to 30 toad-savvy animals to safe ground. |
Early results from the Sihek show the fund’s reintroduction model is working
The Sihek, a Guam kingfisher declared extinct in the wild in 1988 after an invasive snake wiped out the island’s forest birds, offers the fund’s clearest proof of concept: nine birds released onto a remote, snake-free atoll in 2024 are all alive eighteen months later and have laid the first wild Sihek eggs in a generation. On the strength of that result, the fund is doubling down with a second cohort of nine Sihek this year.
The northern quoll is being defended on two fronts at once
The northern quoll, a spotted marsupial predator pushed toward collapse by Australia’s invasive cane toads since 1935, is being defended two ways at once: the Australian Wildlife Conservancy will move up to thirty toad-savvy quolls into a predator-free haven in north Queensland, while Colossal’s own laboratories pursue de-extinction technologies aimed at making the quoll resistant to cane-toad toxins. Dr. Andrew Pask, Colossal’s chief biology officer, describes the effort simply: “Saving the northern quoll means working on two fronts at once.” By his account, reintroduction gives the species safe ground to recover on today, while Colossal’s de-extinction technologies aim to remove the threat that drove its collapse in the first place — pairing field conservation with de-extinction technologies as, in his words, how the fight against extinction should be fought.
Demand for the fund far outstripped its budget this cycle
Demand for the Colossal Species Reintroduction Fund vastly exceeded its resources this cycle: the fund drew close to $5 million in requests against a $250,000 budget — roughly twenty times what it had to give, according to Green Matters. That gap points to how many conservation teams already have the science done and the habitat ready and are waiting on nothing but money to move.
“The fastest way to make extinction a thing of the past is to stop it before it starts.”
— Matt James, Executive Director, Colossal Foundation
Two years into the partnership, Re:wild and the Colossal Foundation frame the fund as a bet that a species written off as finished can still be returned to the wild when the science and the funding line up. The second cohort extends that bet across four continents at once.
This story is based on original reporting by Green Matters Staff for Green Matters. Read the full feature on Green Matters →
