By Bea Harrison
Do you think we should try to bring back extinct creatures? I am pretty much opposed to it, but so was Beth Shapiro, until she discovered she could raise money to bring back the Dodo bird and use the same DNA research to help birds on the brink of extinction.
Shapiro is a highly educated and awarded scientist and professor, who is now the chief scientific officer of Colossal Biosciences, an American genetic engineering company working to bring back several extinct animals, including the Dodo.
The lowly Dodo, whose name is synonymous with low intelligence, is a bird we know very little about. It apparently thrived on Mauritius, a volcanic island in the Indian Ocean 1200 miles off the southeast coast of Africa, east of Madagascar.
Dodo art
Mauritius was uninhabited and unexplored until sailors from the Netherlands stopped there in 1598, discovering a lush paradise filled with unique endemic animals and plants. These sailors were on the lookout to resupply their ships with food and found the Dodo irresistible. They supposedly did not taste good, but they were easy to kill. Having never experienced any kind of predation, man nor animal, the Dodo was curious and unafraid. Within one hundred years the bird was totally extinct.
There was little written about the Dodo. One early visitor said the bird made a nest of grass and only laid one egg. There are a few drawings, but no one really knows much about it. We know it had evolved to be flightless and could be 3 feet tall and might have weighed about 35 to 50 lbs.
After the bird’s disappearance, common thought was that it never existed and was a myth, until modern science discovered and pieced together some bones for museums.
Colossal Biosciences is using the DNA from museum specimens to try to bioengineer the bird (or it’s avatar) back into existence. You can read more about this here: https://www.warpnews.org/innovation/scientists-closer-to-recreating-extinct-dodo-2/
The Dodo’s closest relative is the Nicobar Pigeon, a very colorful bird that is fairly widespread in Indonesia. I’m hoping the new Dodo will be just as colorful.
Nicobar pigeon
De-extinction is a controversial topic, but some find the idea exciting and irresistible. It could be a way to help ecosystems rebalance, by restoring lost elements. It could also be a colossal waste of money that could be better spent on preserving endangered species or slowing climate change. Whatever your view on this, it is coming. The money is being raised and there are at least 15 species on the list.
