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201401Jan12:07

Res­ur­rec­tion of extinct ani­mals pos­si­ble and poten­tial con­ser­va­tion issue, sci­en­tists say

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pub­lished 01 Jan­u­ary 2014 | mod­i­fied 25 Decem­ber 2014
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Sci­en­tists from across the world have “scanned the hori­zon” in order to iden­tify poten­tially sig­nif­i­cant medium and long-​term threats to con­ser­va­tion efforts.

Thylacine baggedRes­ur­rec­tion of sev­eral extinct species, the increas­ingly accel­er­ated loss of wild rhi­noc­er­oses and a dis­as­trous finan­cial response to unburn­able car­bon are just some future global con­ser­va­tion issues flagged up in the pdfHori­zon Scan, pub­lished in the Jan­u­ary issue of Trends in Ecol­ogy and Evolution.

Pro­fes­sor William Suther­land and Dr Mark Spald­ing are amongst the 18 sci­en­tists who took part in this year’s Hori­zon Scan, seek­ing to iden­tify poten­tial future con­ser­va­tion issues in order to reduce the “prob­a­bil­ity of sud­den con­fronta­tion with major social or envi­ron­men­tal changes”.

One such plau­si­ble issue is the res­ur­rec­tion or re-​construction of extinct species, such as the woolly mam­moth, pas­sen­ger pigeon or the thy­lacine (a car­niv­o­rous mar­su­pial). How­ever, though there may be many ben­e­fits to the restora­tion of these ani­mals, such a high-​profile project could lead to atten­tion and resources being diverted from attempts to thwart cur­rent threats to non-​extinct species’ survival.

Hen­drik Poinar’s TEDX Talk: Bring back the woolly mammoth!

(Hen­drik Poinar explains in his TEDX Talk that not only is the sequenc­ing of extinct genomes a pos­si­bil­ity, actu­ally a modern-​day real­ity, but the revival of an extinct species is actu­ally within reach, maybe not from the insects in amber, but from woolly mam­moths, the well pre­served remains of woolly mam­moths in the per­mafrost.)

From Bil­lions to None: The Pas­sen­ger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinc­tion — promo trailer

(The promo trailer for the con­tin­u­ing fundrais­ing cam­paign at: e​-int​.com/​b​i​l​l​i​o​n​s​t​o​n​o​n​e Fol­low author Joel Green­berg and friends on their quest to reveal the incred­i­ble story of how the pas­sen­ger pigeon dis­ap­peared in a geo­logic heart­beat. See why, 100 years later, it is impor­tant to remem­ber the event — and act.)

There has been dis­cus­sion of this idea for some time but it is now look­ing more prac­ti­cal and the idea is being taken seri­ously. A key issues is whether this is really a con­ser­va­tion priority
Pro­fes­sor William Suther­land, Con­ser­va­tion Sci­ence Group, Depart­ment of Zool­ogy, Cam­bridge University »

Though the last woolly mam­moth died around 4000 years ago, meth­ods such as back-​breeding, cloning and genetic engi­neer­ing may lead to their res­ur­rec­tion. Not only could these extinct ani­mals, and oth­ers such as the thy­lacine and the pas­sen­ger pigeon, be re-​constructed and returned to their native envi­ron­ments, they could poten­tially be used to “pro­vide tools for out­reach and education”.

Footage of the last known thy­lacine, and its strik­ing jaw, shot before its death in captivity:

(see also EDGE)


How­ever, though this would be a con­ser­va­tional tri­umph, it could also ham­per efforts to pro­tect ani­mals that are cur­rently fac­ing extinc­tion, as both atten­tion and resources would be diverted from pre­serv­ing exist­ing species and their habi­tats. Fur­ther­more, there has not been any inves­ti­ga­tion into the “via­bil­ity, ethics and safety of releas­ing res­ur­rected species”, nor the effect their pres­ence may have on indige­nous flora and fauna.

Another poten­tial con­ser­va­tional issue iden­ti­fied by the Hori­zon Scan fur­ther high­lights the prob­lems fac­ing species today. The loss of wild rhi­noc­er­oses and ele­phants is set to reac­cel­er­ate within the next few years, par­tially stim­u­lated by a grow­ing desire for ivory and horn.

In 2013, it is esti­mated that over 600 rhi­noc­er­oses were poached for their horn in South Africa alone, out of a total global pop­u­la­tion of less than 26,000. Though an increased human pop­u­la­tion and prox­im­ity to grow­ing infra­struc­ture is par­tially respon­si­ble, organ­ised crime syn­di­cates and inten­sive hunt­ing carry the weight of the blame. In the Asian coun­tries that use it, rhi­noc­eros horn is more expen­sive than gold. Demand for the pre­cious horn is ever increas­ing, result­ing in ele­vated lev­els of poach­ing. If atten­tion and resources are diverted from the pro­tec­tion of these majes­tic ani­mals, we may have yet more can­di­dates for res­ur­rec­tion in the future.

Alto­gether, this group of sci­en­tists iden­ti­fied the top 15 poten­tial con­ser­va­tion issues (out of an ini­tial group of 81 issues). The issues that have been voted as plau­si­ble threats that need to be stopped before they can be realised, are:
- Response of finan­cial mar­kets to unburn­able car­bon
- Exten­sive land loss in South­east Asia from sub­si­dence of peat­lands
- Car­bon solar cells as an alter­na­tive source of renew­able energy
- Rapid geo­graphic expan­sion of macroal­gal cul­ti­va­tion for bio­fu­els
- Redis­tri­b­u­tion of global tem­per­a­ture increases among ecosys­tems
- High-​frequency mon­i­tor­ing of land-​cover change
- Reac­cel­er­ated loss of wild rhi­noc­er­oses and ele­phants
- Increas­ing scale of erad­i­ca­tions of non-​native mam­mals on islands
- Self-​sustaining genetic sys­tems for the con­trol of non-​native inva­sive species
- Pro­bi­otic ther­apy for amphib­ians
- Emerg­ing snake fun­gal dis­ease
- Poly-​isobutylene as a marine tox­i­cant
- Exploita­tion of Antarc­tica
- Expan­sion of ecosys­tem red list­ing
- Res­ur­rec­tion of extinct species

(Source: Uni­ver­sity of Cam­bridge research news, 23.12.2013)


UN Biodiversity decade
WWF Stop Wildlife Crime
Fight for Flight campaign
End Ivory-funded Terrorism
Support Rewilding Europe
NASA State of Flux

Goal: 7000 tigers in the wild

Tiger range countries map

Tiger map” (CC BY 2.5) by Sander­son et al., 2006.

about zoos and their mis­sion regard­ing breed­ing endan­gered species, nature con­ser­va­tion, bio­di­ver­sity and edu­ca­tion, which of course relates to the evo­lu­tion of species.
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