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Title: Conservationists Say 'De-Extinction' Not the Answer to Saving Extinct
Species

Link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/04/20/2053...

There was excitement when biotech company Collosal announced genetically
modified grey wolves (first hailed as a "de-extinction" of the Dire wolf
species after several millennia). "But bioethicists and conservationists are
expressing unease with the kind of scientific research," writes the Chicago
Tribune. [Alternate URL here.] "Unfortunately, as clever as this science is
... it's can-do science and not should-do science," said Lindsay Marshall,
director of science in animal research at Humane World for Animals, formerly
the Humane Society of the U.S.... Ed Heist, a professor at Southern Illinois
University and a conservation geneticist, said the news bothered him. "This
is not conservation, but people conflate it," he said. "The point is
entertainment...." Naomi Louchouarn [program director of wildlife
partnerships at Humane World for Animals], has dedicated her studies and
research to the relationship between humans and animals, specifically
carnivores like gray wolves. "The reason our current endangered species are
becoming extinct is because we don't know how to coexist with them," she
said. "And this doesn't solve that problem at all." Humans can treat the
symptoms of wildlife conflict with "big, flashy silver bullets" and "in this
case, advanced, inefficient science," she said, but the real solution is
behavioral change. "Assuming that we could actually bring back a full
population of animals," Louchouarn said, "which is so difficult and so crazy -
 that's a big if - I don't understand the point of trying to bring back a
woolly mammoth when we already can't coexist with elephants." The article
notes that even Colossal's chief science officer says their technology is at
best one of several tools for fighting biodiversity loss, calling it a battle
which humans are 'not close to winning'... We as a global community need to
continue to invest in traditional approaches to conservation and habitat
preservation, as well as in the protection of living endangered species." But
the article adds that the Trump administration "is citing the case of the
dire wolf as it moves to reduce federal protections under the Endangered
Species Act of 1973." (Wednesday U.S. interior secretary Doug Burgum has even
posted on X "The concept of 'de-extinction' can serve as a bedrock for modern
species conservation." And the article adds that "During a livestreamed town
hall with Interior Department employees on April 9, Burgum said: "If we're
going to be in anguish about losing a species, now we have an opportunity to
bring them back. Pick your favorite species and call up Colossal. Ken
Angielczyk, curator of mammal fossils at the Field Museum who researches
extinct species that lived 200 to 300 million years ago, said it's a
misguided approach. "If that's the basis ... for changing regulations related
to the endangered species list, that is very, very premature," he said.
"Because we can't resurrect things.... If the purpose is to restore the
damage to the shared ecosystem, we have that opportunity right now," she
said. "And that's the necessity immediately...." "This whole idea that
extinction is reversible is so dangerous," Marshall said, "because then it
stops us caring." Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader walterbyrd for sharing
the news.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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