Restoring Extinct Species: The Science Behind Resurrecting Wolves, Otters, and Butterflies in the Wild
Revised Base Article:
In the forthcoming decades, earth could witness the loss of up to a million species, as per experts from the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. This staggering rate of extinction, happening at times faster than previous mass extinctions, is primarily due to human actions, including deforestation, monoculture farming, industrial pollution, poaching, and climate change. As our own species thrive, we may find ourselves unintentionally poisoning the well that sustains us – regenerating and conserving ecosystems that are vital for human life.
One radical solution to combat the extinction crisis is the resurrection of extinct species – a tantalizing prospect that seems within reach thanks to advancements in technology. However, as fascinating as this idea may be, it's far from simple. Resurrecting extinct animals and plants and returning them to their natural habitats is a daunting, multifaceted challenge with numerous obstacles and ethical dilemmas.
First, let's consider the preparation process for these returned creatures. Zoologists and experts meticulously care for and condition these creatures before releasing them back into the wild. One dedicated zoologist, Valentin Pazhetnov, invested nearly two decades in perfecting a system for raising and releasing orphaned bear cubs. His findings suggest that for a bear cub to stand a chance of surviving in the wild, it must have less than two weeks of human contact; any more, and it may lose its innate fear of humans, making survival in the wild more challenging.
Geneticists have recently joined the fray, with their eyes set on cloning, genetic editing, and synthetic biology as potential methods for reviving extinct species. Ideal candidates for this groundbreaking technology are the mammoth and the passenger pigeon. In April 2025, Time magazine shared the story of how researchers from Colossal Biosciences successfully created three dire wolf puppies (Canis dirus), which went extinct more than 10,000 years ago.
In theory, humanity is on the brink of reviving and reintroducing extinct species. However, the reality is much grimmer. "Animals don't just vanish due to hunting; their habitats change, the environment shifts, resources disappear, even the microbiological environment alter, and reintroduced species struggle to adapt," warns our website's director of the Nature Conservation Fund, Peter Shpilhenok. Adding to the challenge, captive-born individuals lack the skills to forage, evade predators, or interact with their own kind – skills they need to survive and thrive in the wild.
Moreover, genetics can be a double-edged sword. Animals are resurrected using DNA sourced from only a few individuals, a practice that leads to inbreeding and health issues, lower disease resistance, and weakened genetic diversity. As a result, the chances of these animals creating self-sustaining populations in their new environments are slim.
Despite these obstacles, enthusiasm for "undoing" extinction is growing. De-extinction projects can easily secure funding, approval from authorities, and wide media coverage. However, this explosion of interest brings its own set of difficulties – failures are often met with silence and scorn, as it's challenging for scientists to acknowledge and learn from their mistakes. In 2000, scientists from Australia's National University analyzed 180 reintroduction projects and found that nearly half had questionable success rates.
Every attempt to return an animal to the wild is an experiment, and modern technology allows us to constantly monitor these experiments with satellite tracking devices, collect samples to assess their health, and identify factors contributing to their demise. Visit our website's gallery to explore projects on the reintroduction of various animals that ended in failure, providing valuable insights into the challenges faced during these ambitious endeavors.
Enrichment Insights:
- Ecological and Environmental Challenges: De-extinction projects face numerous ecological and environmental obstacles, such as habitat alteration, climate change, and shifting environmental conditions, which can affect the viability and adaptability of resurrected species (1, 2).
- Genetic Integrity and Adaptation Issues: The genetic material obtained for extinct species might be degraded or insufficient, and cloned or genetically engineered animals may not adapt well to their new environments, leading to health complications and poor survival rates (1).
- Questionable Success Rates: Reintroduction efforts have historically shown mixed results, with success rates usually below 50%. This is primarily due to the difficulties in establishing stable populations in their original habitats and the challenges captive-bred animals face when released into altered ecosystems (2, 4).
- Ethical Concerns: The immense resources needed for de-extinction projects could be better spent on conserving existing species or addressing current environmental issues. Additionally, suggesting that species can be brought back could reduce urgency in conservation efforts (1, 3).
- Classification Issues: Species resurrected through genetic manipulation may not be genetically identical to their extinct counterparts, raising questions about their classification and ecological role (1).
- In an effort to counteract climate change and safeguard environmental health, promoting fitness-and-exercise and health-and-wellness among communities could potentially help reduce human contributions to global warming.
- The resurgence of life, not only through the resurrection of extinct species but also the conservation of existing ones, calls for greater collaboration in environmental-science and science-at-large, to ensure the sustainability of our shared ecosystems.
- Encouraging a shift towards sustainable practices in agriculture, such as crop rotation and organic farming, could help mitigate deforestation and monoculture farming, thereby reducing the impact of human actions on biodiversity loss.
