<\/p>
If ever there were to be a poster child for extinction, it\u00a0has to\u00a0be the dodo<\/a>. This makes them an obvious choice for de-extinction. Bring back the dodo and axe the adage; give the flightless, ground-dwelling pigeon another shot at existence.<\/strong><\/p> Dodos lived happily in their island paradise of Mauritius <\/a>for hundreds of thousands of years. They were big, chunky birds, with greyish-brown body feathers, a white tail plume, and a large, curved beak, which they probably used for foraging and defending their territory.<\/p> The evolved in an environment that was free of predators, so when 16th<\/sup>\u00a0century seafarers arrived and started clubbing them to death to make stew, the birds were nonplussed. They weren\u2019t stupid, as if often quipped. They were just na\u00efve.\u00a0<\/p> Settlers later brought rats, pigs and other non-native species, which further compounded the dodo\u2019s misery. They trashed its habitat, ate its eggs and generally\u00a0out-competed\u00a0it. The dodo went extinct in 1681.<\/p> In\u00a02022<\/a>, geneticist Beth Shapiro from the UC Santa Cruz, who is a scientific advisor to Colossal Biosciences, decoded the dodo\u2019s genome. Scientists at Colossal are now determining the sequences which they will edit into cells collected from the dodo\u2019s closest living relative, the Nicobar pigeon. Then, just as for the passenger pigeon<\/a>, the edited cells will be used to create adult birds that create dodo sperm and eggs.\u00a0<\/p> This is not a trivial amount of science, but it\u2019s another great example of how research being done for de-extinction, can trickle down into the conservation space. If scientists can tweak the biology of one bird species so that it can lay the eggs of another \u2013 as they are doing for both the dodo and the passenger pigeon<\/a> projects – then the method could be used to help living, endangered birds.<\/p> If this sounds far-fetched, think again. Sperm<\/a> from the threatened houbara bustard\u00a0have been grown inside chickens<\/a>\u00a0and used to make live houbara chicks.\u00a0<\/p> Perhaps the biggest challenge for the dodo project, however, will come after the first dodo hatches. Modern pigeons produce a nutrient-dense paste in their crops, which they feed to their newly hatched offspring. Dodos probably did this too, so how to ensure the first dodo squabs are well fed?<\/p> Then there\u2019s the question of where they would live. The goal is to reintroduce them to Mauritius, but since the dodo\u2019s demise, the island has lost more than\u00a060%<\/a>\u00a0of its native forest cover. The invasive species that saw it off the first-time round are still there, so if dodos were to be released, it would need to be in predator-free enclosures or satellite islands.<\/p> Even then, however, the dodo\u2019s ecological impact would still be uncertain, as, like so many other extinct species, no one really studied it before it disappeared.<\/p> There\u2019s one last key issue that straddles all de-extinction projects. De-extinction projects are generating insights that are helpful to conservation, but very often, this involves research on wild animals and their cells.<\/p> Bringing back the woolly mammoth<\/a> involves research on elephants<\/a>. Bringing back the thylacine<\/a> involves research on other carnivorous marsupials<\/a>. The passenger pigeon project involves studies of the band-tailed pigeon, and the dodo de-extinction involves the study of the Nicobar pigeon.\u00a0<\/p> So, let\u2019s finish by thinking about the Nicobar pigeon. This is a small, stunning, iridescent bird, hunted for the pet and food trades, and threatened by habitat loss. Although it is listed as \u2018near threatened\u2019, numbers are\u00a0declining<\/a>. It\u2019s not a laboratory animal, but there are captive populations that could be used for research purposes.<\/p> The question, then, is should we be able to \u2018use\u2019 one wild species to bring back or help another? And who gets to decide?<\/p> For now, these and other ethical conundrums, remain a live issue\u2026whilst the dodo remains \u2018as dead as.\u2019\u00a0<\/p> Top image by Roelant Savery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n By Published: Saturday, 02 November 2024 at 09:53 AM If ever there were to be a poster child for extinction, it\u00a0has to\u00a0be the dodo. This makes them an obvious choice for de-extinction. Bring back the dodo and axe the adage; give the flightless, ground-dwelling pigeon another shot at existence. Dodos lived happily in their island […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":43379,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/as-scientists-plot-to-bring-back-the-dodo-helen-pilcher-asks-whether-we-should-and-what-would-happen-if-we-did.jpg",2000,1605,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/as-scientists-plot-to-bring-back-the-dodo-helen-pilcher-asks-whether-we-should-and-what-would-happen-if-we-did-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/as-scientists-plot-to-bring-back-the-dodo-helen-pilcher-asks-whether-we-should-and-what-would-happen-if-we-did-300x241.jpg",300,241,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/as-scientists-plot-to-bring-back-the-dodo-helen-pilcher-asks-whether-we-should-and-what-would-happen-if-we-did-768x616.jpg",768,616,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/as-scientists-plot-to-bring-back-the-dodo-helen-pilcher-asks-whether-we-should-and-what-would-happen-if-we-did-1024x822.jpg",800,642,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/as-scientists-plot-to-bring-back-the-dodo-helen-pilcher-asks-whether-we-should-and-what-would-happen-if-we-did-1536x1233.jpg",1536,1233,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/as-scientists-plot-to-bring-back-the-dodo-helen-pilcher-asks-whether-we-should-and-what-would-happen-if-we-did.jpg",2000,1605,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Published: Saturday, 02 November 2024 at 09:53 AM If ever there were to be a poster child for extinction, it\u00a0has to\u00a0be the dodo. This makes them an obvious choice for de-extinction. Bring back the dodo and axe the adage; give the flightless, ground-dwelling pigeon another shot at existence. Dodos lived happily in their island…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/43378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
What would happen if we did bring the dodo back?<\/h2>
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