Neka Kayda: Colossal’s First Cloned Red Wolf Celebrates Her First Birthday

As Neka Kayda turns one, Colossal shows how cloning expands founder lines—complementing the colossal dire wolf program and advancing real-world conservation.

BY Rob Keyes

Colossal Biosciences is celebrating the first birthday of Neka Kayda, the first cloned American red wolf—a milestone that shows how biotechnology can accelerate conservation. With fewer than 20 red wolves remaining in North Carolina, Colossal used banked Gulf-coast genetics and careful husbandry to produce two litters of cloned pups, expanding founder lines and reducing inbreeding risk. Raised on a 2,000-acre ecological preserve, Neka is thriving and demonstrating a practical path for species recovery at scale. This work complements momentum from the colossal dire wolf project, which has drawn global attention to de-extinction science. Together, these efforts translate breakthrough genetics into real-world conservation tools for endangered canids.

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