Bringing Back Extinct Animals
1. De-extinction can increase biodiversity and restore missing ecological niches.
Lost plants and animals may have been important for an ecosystem’s overall functioning. Replacing them with surrogates (similar species) or the real thing (de-extinction) could help restore long-lost ecological patterns.
Example: Giant ground sloths fed on large fruits and nuts. The fruits and nuts, in turn, relied on the sloths for seed dispersal.
Example: Mammoths and other megafauna maintained an open savanna-like grassland in Northern latitudes. Thousands of herbivores grazed for grass over long arctic winters. As they exposed the earth, they cooled it. Over time, this prevents the melting of permafrost and the release of dangerous climate-changing methane gas. There are currently experiments in Russia to restore this original biome (Pleistocene Park). Replacing missing animals (such as the mammoth) could help slow climate change through the ecosystems they create and maintain – a strategy they’re using at Pleistocene Park.
Example: A flock of passenger pigeons was so thick with birds that it blocked out the sun. These flocks (containing billions of birds) were giant nutrient conveyor belts that transported nutrients up and down the East Coast of North America. Returning the birds to the environment could restore an important nutrient cycle to the continent. Revive & Restore is pursuing this work.
2. De-extinction technology can save endangered animals.
De-extinction is hard, so it’s always easier to save struggling species than to recreate extinct species from scratch. That being said, advances in de-extinction techniques may offer some help to endangered and threatened species.
Example: As populations decrease, species lose their genetic diversity. Lower diversity means that endangered species are more susceptible to diseases and genetic disorders (think inbreeding). Genetic techniques could recover genetic diversity from museum samples and reintroduce them to living populations.
3. De-Extinction Challenges A Dangerous Cultural Narrative (my touchy-feely answer).
It’s important to challenge the cultural narrative that humans are inherently destructive (especially when it comes to the natural world). Don’t get me wrong, we’ve done a lot of terrible stuff, and any approach should be well thought-out. Yet, there’s nothing in our DNA that says we’re inherently destructive. If we changed the way we viewed ourselves, we could be a force for nature. I, for one, like to think that we have the ability to create (or recreate) abundance.
Ryan Phelan (co-founder and executive director of Revive & Restore) created the picture below. The slide suggested that if we play our cards right, we can create abundance.
