How Jurassic Park-style science could bring the dodo back from the dead

Four centuries after the bird's extinction coined the phrase, a Texan biotech company is experimenting on cells from one of its surviving relatives – and promising to give it life once more

The dodo was wiped out from its native home in Mauritius in the 17th century. Getty

The dodo is more synonymous with extinction than any other species, surviving only in phrases such as “dead as a dodo” or “gone the way of the dodo”.

But there could be a way back for the harmless, fruit-eating, flightless bird that was wiped out in the 17th century from its home of Mauritius by hunting, habitat loss and invasive species.

Colossal Biosciences, an American biotechnology company, has claimed that it has moved a step closer to bringing one of these creatures back to life.

Ben Lamm, the Texas-based firm's chief executive, hopes to create "thousands" of the birds and gave a timeline of around five to seven years before the dream can become a reality. He added that the ultimate aim is to reintroduce them back into the wild.

How is it possible?

The firm has grown primordial germ cells, cells that give rise to sperm or eggs, from Nicobar pigeons, described as the closest living relative of the dodo. The aim is to create a dodo-like bird from Nicobar pigeons genetically modified to be like dodos.

Colossal Biosciences has already genetically modified chickens to act as surrogates in its Jurassic Park-style recreation of the dodo.

The creatures that result could, according to the firm, be released into areas of Mauritius that are free of rats, a non-native animal that eats dodo eggs.

William Kunin, professor of ecology at the University of Leeds, said there is “a better argument” to recreate the dodo than there is for some other animals Colossal Biosciences has worked on, such as the dire wolf. “It’s a much less problematic thing to work on,” he said.

Prof Kunin said that the dodo, had it not been driven to extinction, could have formed the basis of “very useful species of tropical domestic foul”.

Nicobar pigeons are considered the closest living relative of the dodo. Getty

What other animals have been brought back?

As reported in The National, in April Colossal Biosciences unveiled several pure white animals that it said were “de-extincted” dire wolves, a creature made famous by the television series Game of Thrones.

The animals were grey wolves genetically engineered to resemble the dire wolf, which went extinct 13,000 years ago.

A similar approach – taking a close living relative and genetically engineering it to be similar to a long-lost animal – is being taken with all the species that Colossal Biosciences aims to bring back from extinction.

The company is also working to bring back the woolly mammoth by genetically engineering Asian elephants to, for example, have a shaggy coat and be resistant to cold temperatures.

And, earlier this year, Colossal Biosciences released pictures and videos of a “woolly mouse”, a rodent genetically engineered to have a woollier and lighter coat. This was developed using techniques similar to those that could be used to make hairy elephants.

Colossal Biosciences also hopes to bring back the Tasmanian tiger or thylacine, a carnivorous marsupial from Australia.

Divided opinions

“The value of producing lookalikes of extinct species is marginal at best and a distraction from the challenge of preventing extinctions in the now,” said Dr Alexander Lees, a reader in conservation biology at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Dr Lees said “robust scientific studies” indicated that spending on de-extinction “could lead to net biodiversity loss as other work is deprioritised”. He added that any ecological benefits from creating a dodo-like creature “would be negligible”.

“Theoretically a dodo-like creature might perform some dodo-like functions, but the Mauritius of today – home to 1.26 million people and retaining just four per cent of its native forest cover – is very different to 16th-century Mauritius and any large flightless bird would only survive in enclosures,” he said.

Dr Lees sees far more value in the work on living threatened species, saying that research carried out by Colossal Biosciences “looks to have significant value” and the company’s work “will doubtless advance gene-editing technologies”.

The company has said that it is making its technology freely available to conservation organisations to help threatened species.

Colossal Biosciences has been valued at billions of dollars, in large part because of the potential spin-off benefits of its technology in other fields, notably healthcare.

Colossal Biosciences has grown primordial germ cells from Nicobar pigeons. Getty

Animal welfare issues

Aside from the conservation merits or demerits of recreating lost species, genetically engineering animals raises welfare issues.

Andrew Knight, a veterinary surgeon and adjunct professor of animal welfare at Murdoch University and Griffith University in Australia, said that the loss of species was “probably the greatest tragedy of our time”, with the world now experiencing the sixth mass extinction since fossil records began.

“It’s a nice idea – I wish we could de-extinct species without animal welfare problems and bring them back with ecosystems that are [intact]. The reality in the modern world is very different,” he said.

The technology involved is, he said, “fraught with animal welfare hazards”, particularly because when attempts are made to genetically modify animals, many will not survive to adulthood.

“There’s a high failure rate of partially modified animals that often have problems that create suffering before they die,” he said.

Another welfare issue with attempting to recreate lost species is, he said, that the resulting creatures may not have other individuals of the same species to socialise with.

“There are no other adults they can learn survival habits from – where to find food and shelter and successful social partnerships,” Prof Knight said.

Colossal Biosciences has said that it is certified by the American Humane Society, an organisation well known for its efforts to prevent cruelty to animals on film sets.

Even if bringing back animals was not important in conservation terms, Prof Kunin said that the exercise was not without merit. “It will capture the public imagination and its importance will be in the way it captures the public imagination,” he said.