The Dire Wolf Cloning Technology Helping to Save Red Wolves & Other Endangered Species

An ounce of conservation is worth a pound of de-extinction.

BY Cassidy Ward

Colossal Biosciences, the company which bills itself as the world’s first de-extinction company, recently announced the de-extinction of the dire wolf, a Pleistocene animal which went extinct about 12,000 years ago.

Images and videos of genetically engineered mega wolves roaming a secret facility somewhere in North America are now flooding the internet, conjuring visions of Jurassic Park, only you can’t buy tickets. There aren’t any plans to open these animals up to public visitation. Still, there are already opposing arguments about the dire wolves’ existence. There are those who think the whole endeavor is a mistake, and others who are excited at the prospect of bringing back lost species.

Less controversial are the downstream impacts of de-extinction technologies, the sort of off-label conservation which can be supported by the same tools. In the same way that a runner training at high altitude runs more easily at sea level, any tool capable of returning an extinct species (or something quite like it) to the Earth can also help to conserve living species on the brink of extinction.

In fact, it’s already happening.

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